


An Old Love

by Flusion



Series: Adventures of Robin and Nowi [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Falling In Love, Memory Loss, Past/Future Shenanigans, Repressed Memories, Riddles, Romance, Skinship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 14:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 40,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18477709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flusion/pseuds/Flusion
Summary: A tale of a dragon, a tactician, and all that they experience in their war torn lives.





	1. Torture

“Hey let go of me! I said let go it hurts,” Nowi shouted at her captors. She was, of course, speaking to the Plegian men currently dragging her chained self onto a stone altar. It was a massive and wide pedestal, unnecessarily so for it's purpose. She knew that they were going to kill her as a sacrifice, but she didn't know what exactly they were going to do to her. She didn't believe it would be a swift death. She only knew that it would be death.

There was sand in her eyes and under her nails. There was sand everywhere and it was just making everything so much worse. Her arms were tightly bound in metal shackles and bands to hold her in place. Exposed for all the revelers to see was her bare and naked skin; bruised horribly from multiple beatings that nobody had healed. Her tiny ancient body had been abused for days, and weeks, and months, and years. Gods she couldn't remember how long it had been. Now she was here at the altar and it was it. Her final breath was so near she could see it coming for her. She was at the execution table of a cult as old as her.

She was crying from the sand, and they forced her to her knees on the pedestal. The over sized execution table was rife with strangely colored etchings and odd shapes. They were all symbols of the cult. In front of her vulnerable self was a cloaked and covered man bearing a wicked knife. It was long and sharp. It zigged and zagged in a manner that reminded her of lighting.

Nowi didn't know what exactly a sacrifice to Grima entailed. She had no idea what they were going to do to her. It was her death but would it be quick or would it be torture. The two Grimleal faithful who had brought her to the pedestal turned her around so that he back was facing the crowd. She immediately knew what was about to happen. This wasn't going to be any kind of quick death.

Her captors pulled her arms from her sides and forced them to be swing up like wings. This gave the man with the knife a much larger canvas with which to do his work. She couldn't see what he was doing but she felt the sharp tip of the blade start at the outer part of her wrist. He forced it into her arm and drug the blade slowly up to her shoulder and back over creating a bloody line across her arm span.

The Grimleal reveled in her cries. Some began to cut themselves and offer blood to their dark god. The ground was wet with the red life of many. There were shouts and screams as they all went wild.

The cloaked man moved directly to her back and started his work.

 

****

Gregor didn't know that he was working for the Grimleal until he saw them dragging the young girl from her cell. It brought shame to him, but he couldn't afford to wallow in it if he wanted to save her. It was a time for action.

It was into action that he sprung, and immediately killed a nearby faithful who had yet to gather for the revelry. He was a man who Gregor knew to carry a key that he would need for his deed. After he gathered the key that he needed he had the grab just a few more things. A small list. Things for the just-in-cases that he knew were bound to happen.

When he was completely prepared for it, Gregor snuck close to the alter and quietly cursed. They had already started the ceremony. His just-in-case preparation would do him well. Medicine to try and heal what they were doing to her. Bandages and wrappings to stop the bleeding of all the cuts. He was no cleric and had no magical talents whatsoever. All he could call upon was his natural skills from the years of mercenary work.

Gregor charged into them interrupting the reveling worshipers. He knocked the man with a knife away and even across the table and into the crowd, so strong was the force of his blow. Then he dispatched the other two cultists and grabbed the blood covered little girl.

He sprinted off of the table and ran into the desert holding the still conscious and very weak girl with him. He would need to make great distance in a short amount of time in order to escape the Grimleal. It would take them a short while to organize, but if he wasn't far enough away they would overtake him.

After over an hour of moving, Gregor found a spot shaded by a rock were he could tend to the girl in safety. It was out of the wind and out of sight. Here he removed her chains as well as cleaned and dressed the prideful girl's wounds. She was far to stubborn to fall unconscious and she attempted to struggle away from him even in her delirium. She was far too weak though, which Gregor was grateful for.

When he was finished her exposed body was clothed in bandages. Her upper body at least. In the essence of being quick he had only grabbed a small pair of pants which he though might fight her smaller frame. Needless to say they were far to large still, but she was much more modest than before.

For the next while he carried her in his arms. She was quite heavy for her size though he did know why. Soon she was not only conscious but aware. She was still too weak to struggle like he knew she would, but she was now complaining and crying.

As they walked Gregor finally decided to give her the special keepsake she would need in order to fully recover. From a pouch on his pocket he pulled a small, green, palm sized stone. It shone with a weak light as he brought it up to the little girl.

“Here Wee One. Is stone of the dragons no. You can use it. Gregor gave it to Gregor for safety keeping. Is no use to me, but you need it no?” Gregor said.

Needless to say. She swiped it from his grasp before he could even blink.

With the small girl in his arms, the old mercenary Gregor laughed harder than he had in a long time.

*****  
Some Days Later

About a stone's throw away from him, Robin could see a small commotion going about. He was standing with Chrom and Lissa surveying the field of their soon to be battlefield. A team of brigands and cloaked individuals was moving rapidly in their direction, or so his intelligence team had told him. This large space was a location he had picked out for the battle. He would wait for them to reach here so they could do battle on even ground.

It appeared to him that it was a young girl being chased by a man with a sword. As they watched as the man caught up to her and grabbed her by the wrist.

Next to him, Chrom sprung into action unable to control himself in such a situation.

“Hey! You there! Fiend! Keep your hands away from that young maiden!” he was shouting, even as he moved towards the older man in a threatening manner.

Lissa followed Chrom forward, yet Robin stayed back to let them handle the situation. From his position he could not hear what they were saying very well. He could see however, that the older man was extremely expressive with his hands. Over the course of his conversation with Chrom there were many face palms and exaggerated throws of his arms into the air. Next to their conversation the young girl was crying harder and seemed to shrink in on herself more and more.

Suddenly a team of brigands came out of nowhere and attacked the group. Robin, realizing the danger, charged forward with his tome. As he ran forward he cast a spell on the fly, but it died on his lips in amazement.

One of the Brigands had grabbed onto the young girl. Needless to say he made a big mistake, and his mistake led to the surprise of everyone present.

“Don't touch me,” she screamed, clutching at her chest harder and a powerful glow shot out from in between her fingers. Her body was enveloped into a cocoon of flower petals and light before exploding outward leaving flower petals floating everywhere. In the place of the girl floated a golden dragon, whom proceeded to tear the man who had grabbed onto her apart.

Robin was surprised beyond all doubt. Never before in his short memory had he seen anything as brutally fascinating as the magnificent creature before him now. Near him Chrom seemed to be surprised but not truly shocked or confused.

“A manakete,” Chrom said, “That is certainly unusual, and completely unexpected, though not unhelpful.”

Then, a cloaked man approached from a distance. He was scrawny and hunched over in a frail way, though he gave off a horrendous and creepy vibe.

“Haha there you are you scrawny scamp. Be prepared for a dose of Grima's wrath for your nature,” the man said.

Then, with a snap of his fingers, he disappeared behind a crowd of charging warriors and magicians.

Robin looked at the two new faces, but before he could speak the older man took his turn.

“Name is Gregor,” Gregor said, “Very swell sword. Will fight for you today.”

Robin looked at Chrom, giving him a questioning look. With which Chrom responded to with a thumbs-up and a wink.

The dragon had since reverted back to the form of a petite young girl. She was still wiping tears from her eyes when she likewise spoke before Robin could ask.

“I-i'm Nowi. Thank you for saving me,” she sniffed, “ I'd like to help take out those baddies too if you might let me.” she gave him a look that gave him almost no room to tell her no.

Nowi was peculiar looking to say the least. She had long pointed ears and yellow-green hair. When she spoke he noticed that she had fangs, or rather, two larger canines. On top of her odd natural appearance, her entire upper body was covered in bandages. Her hands. All the way up her arms. The wrapping extended from her neck down her torso and ended at her waist were she wore a too large pair of pants.

He made a note to have Lissa take a look at her after the battle was finished.

Instead of outright rejecting the child in front of him, dragon or not, Robin got down onto one knee. On one knee he was a little bit shorter than her, but still at a much better height with which to speak to her. He didn't intend to allow someone who was injured to enter the field of battle, let alone a child.

“Of course you can help, Nowi. You can go back there and help defend the back lines with a knight called Kellam. You can help him protect the supply convey,” Robin said.

In front of him Nowi puffed out her cheeks in what was probably supposed be an expression of anger, but her expression went completely unnoticed by Robin. Behind him he could hear Chrom snorting, and Gregor burst into outright laughter.

“Robin come here a minute,” Chrom said, as he laughed.

Robin obliged and approached Chrom after standing up and dusting off his knee.

“What?” Robin said.

“She's a manakete,” Chrom replied, “ do you know what a manakete is?”

At the shake of his head, Chrom continued.

“Manaketes are an ancient race predating even humans in terms of history. They can live to incredible ages, and you might even call them immortal. She could be hundreds or even thousands of years old,” he whispered.

“Oh,” Robin replied. Then his face deepened to a shade of deep red, “Oooh.”

Chrom patted him on the shoulder, and behind him Lissa started a conversation with Nowi.

“So how old are you even?” she said.

Nowi responded, “Uh I don't know. A thousand something?”

Frederick approached from the direction of the battle that had been taking place ahead of them. He looked no worse for wear. Not a drop of sweat covered his face, and nary a dent blemished his armor.

“Good news sire, Robin's plan went exactly as predicted and the last of the Grimleal have been ousted. I dare say Robin doesn't even need his own self in order to conduct his plans. Things went completely perfect, and the enemy acted exactly as Robin predicted,” Frederick reported.

“Good. Excellent even. Terribly sorry we couldn't enter into the fight but a little something came up and kept us busy. Nevertheless we made some new friends and a couple of new recruits to boot,” Chrom said.

Robin turned around to see Frederick giving the two new ones his classic “Frederick the wary” stare down.

“Do not be deceived, Frederick, the little one is a manakete,” Robin warned.

“So she is,”he commented.

****

Later that Evening

Robin sat down on his cot after a several hour series of paperwork and logistical things that were ordinary of his position. Many people would misplace their things, for example, and he had to find and or reissue a tent to some poor soldier. He had to organize the army for the night and set up the city of tents it would entail. None of what he did was physical activity, just completely mentally exhausting.

He was doing the full job of a quartermaster along with his job as a tactician. He was pulling the weight of no less than three men, and he could only add it all up to personality. He just got put in charge of everything. Because of his busy work load he had no rest.

As he sat down for the final time that night, it was well past midnight and the tent city was still very much active. There was no foreseeable battle in the future for at least a month and the whole of the army was making use of their time to stay awake late and drink themselves to sleep. The tent city had an economy in its own right after all, and it was full of any amenity a soldier might want.

For the night, his job was done and his brain hurt so he was going to sleep, or he would have if a thought had not made itself present in his head. He sighed as he stood up and mentally prepared himself for a session of self humbling. He still had one bit of business left undone, and he'd rather not have grievances among the shepherds if he could help it.

Robin stepped out of his tent, located in the shepherd location of the military city and immediately had to dodge Vaike, who was walking alongside Virion while in conversation.

“Sup Rob.”

“Ah Sir Robin.”

Robin responded to their greeting in turn, “Good night gentlemen. Have you, perchance, encountered Nowi tonight?”

“Hmm? Ah yes the young and spritely manakete recruit. Yes, I believe you had her room with Panne as a temporary arrangement. She can probably be found over by her new tent yes?” Virion replied.

Robin nodded, “I appreciate it Virion.”

Robin continued on his way, going off in the opposite direction of the other pair, though he could still hear some of their conversation.

“No no Vaike. I do not believe you have managed to develop a finer taste yet. You seem to still be focused on the size of things. Look at the whole picture...”

What where they talking about? Well Robin supposed it didn't matter to him what their business was. Or rather, he didn't really want to know what kind of business they were going on about.

It was a short walk to Panne's tent, which was on the edge of the shepherd's site. Just as he was about to knock on a wooden pole supporting the tent, Panne stepped out looking quite irritated and whispered to him.

“She's all yours man-spawn. Please deal with her. Please,” Panne the taguel growled, before stalking off.

Robin sighed as he stepped into the tent. Inside Nowi was seated on her cot looking at him with a great big smile on her face. She looked to be the completely carefree child she looked like, but he now knew that she was no child, and in fact, was far more experienced in the ways of the world than him.

“Nowi I came over to apologize to you for my behavior earlier today. I have never met a manakete before, and was unaware of them until meeting you. I apologize for treating you in such a rude manner and I accept what you may have of me. Within reason of course. Please within reason,” Robin said, lowering his head in her presence.

“No way Robin. I thought you were a serious person given your position, but you came to me saying some silly things. It's okay. There wasn't any sorta harm done after all, was there. Well except to your ego, but we can fix that. And well I guess to the enemy soldiers, but we can't fix that I guess...” Nowi said with a twinkling tone, “No no you don't owe me a thing. It happens a lot to me, or, it kind of used to? Idoknow?”

Robin smiled at her, “Well I'm glad I cleared that up. I didn't want to leave things as they are when you could have been seriously offended by my words. They were a little mean after all. Well if it's okay then I'm going to go to bed. I'm a bit sleepy after today.”

Robin left the tent and made way to his own living space, giving tired waves to the others that he passed on his way. Once he was in his tent he fell to his cot and fell asleep.

Some hours into the night, however, his sleep was interrupted by someone.

“Robin,” she whispered, completely swaddled in a blanket, “are you awake? Panne kicked me out of the tent, and it's cold out. Could I sleep in here?”

“Huh? Sshure you can just throw your cot down somewhere and...” Robin trailed off sleepily, “Don't make a mess.”

“Thank you” the cheerful voice said to him as he fell back into sleep.

****

“Robin,” Lissa called to him in a gentle manner, “It's time to get up. There's a surprise for you,” she giggled quietly.

Robin woke up in a rather powerful stupor that morning. He woke up to Lissa gently prodding him awake. She was usually rather loud and rambunctious about getting him out of his cot in the mornings; a habit that she had picked up in the early days of their campaign. He was far too sleepy, however, to be suspicious of one of her pranks

He woke up feeling warm, with a rather hefty weight around his middle. Something was wrapped around his midsection, and it was quite heavy. It was a warm weight though, not entirely uncomfortable, just somewhat unfamiliar. It was a feeling he was unaccustomed to.

Slowly as he woke up he removed his heavy blanket from about his person to reveal the petite manakete girl Nowi wrapped around his middle. Above him Lissa was now giggling and giving a mischievous smirk all at the same time.

“Well well well, what do we have here. Robin it would seem like you acquired yourself a partner for the night,” Lissa gave him a sly smirk, “You devil. How'd this happen?”

“What?” Robin said confused. He looked down at his middle and noticed Nowi attached to him. Then it hit him, “Naga help me,” he sighed, “Nowi get up it's morning why are you sleeping on me?”

His voice was all slurred from sleep, yet his brain was awake enough to comprehend what was happening. He knew he was into some kind of deep trouble.

Robin threw his arms back in a stretch as Nowi began to wake up and tried to do the same, except she somehow managed to have gotten her arm under his body and was completely pinned under his superior size. Robin, seeing this, lifted himself up enough to free her, and earned himself an appreciative look for his efforts.

“Lissa I wish I could explain to you, or give you some kind of excuse, but I have none. I don't know why Nowi is in my room, or why she was sleeping with me,” Robin said slowly.

“Whuh?” Nowi exclaimed, “Whuh is th' time?”

Lissa smiled at the sleepy Nowi, “Oh it's early morning. About the time I get Robin up every day. I didn't expect to find you in here though.”

“Oh... well Panne kicked me out lass' night for some reason. Maybe my scent idoknow. It was cold outside so I slep' in Robin's tent.”

“Mhmm I see, well that certainly makes sense, other than the fact that there are plenty of women here who would happily take you as a guest in their tent,” Lissa said.

“Actually Lissa, Panne was the only woman who didn't have a full tent. Everyone else was sharing and full of stuff.”

“Well better you than Vaike I suppose. It doesn't appear that anything happened and well, you're both adults I guess. I was just hoping for some juicy bits of gossip and rumors to start,” she covered her mouth with her hand.

Many people thought of Lissa as a rather cute and sweet young lady. To many she appeared delicate and dainty as a flower. If Robin had looked at her from some distance away he might have believed that, but he had the unfortunate fate to have met the other side of the princess. It was the fun little side that the common folk did not ever get to see. He dared to think many employed in the castle who were around her regularly didn't actually know about her less innocent side. She would put a frog down his pants and then turn around and give an adorable wave to someone behind her as Robin would dance around trying to save himself.

Now this crafty little princess in front of him had blackmail material, and all he could do was shrug and hope for the best.

“Alright get out of here Lissa I'm gonna get ready for the day so please don't bother me,” Robin said, “You should go and see if someone needs medical help or something.”

“Hmm sure, but are you gonna get ready with her in the tent too,” Lissa pointed at Nowi who was still looking around sleepily.

“Figuring out what to do with her is going to be a part of me getting ready,” he answered her.

As Lissa left Nowi spoke up up, “You know I'm sleepy still, but I can hear you right? You don't need to talk like I'm not here.”

Nowi pulled a fine comb from somewhere on her person, Robin wasn't sure where it came from, and began to remove any bits of dirt and knots from her hair.

“Yeah well I'll step out and give you a bit of privacy to get ready. I'll go grab some food or something while I wait my turn. Do you want something?” Robin said. He left it to his care-filled nature to do his job for him. 

“Yeah sure get me an apple or something I'm not that hungry,” she replied.

He was going to do what she asked, but that didn't mean he believed her. Yesterday during the battle he could clearly see her ribs, given her choice of clothing. She was obviously underfed, perhaps even starving. He would figure it out in time after all. That was his third job. It was an unofficial position and not always an appreciated one. He was going to figure out what kept her from asking for more food even though she was most definitely famished.

He had to cross the campsite in order to get to the mess hall and grab some food. He normally didn't eat at the hall, but the shepherds were used to him popping in to grab food in the mornings. He didn't always eat the mess food, and in fact preferred to stay in his tent and study strategy. Most of the time he either went without food or ate ration “snacks” Gaius had started to provide for him. It wasn't a free service the thief provided but it was worth it in order to get more time at his books to think up new possible ways that they could fail so he could correct those errors.

In the mess tent Chrom almost always sat near the entrance with Frederick and Lissa. Whenever Robin went to the mess tent he would walk passed them and give some typical greeting. Then, Chrom would invite him to eat with them which he rarely accepted. Frederick “The Wary” was still somewhat suspicious of him after all.

This morning in particular Chrom looked quite excited to see him. The young man's eyes lit up at the sight of Robin.

“Good morning Robin. What brings you to the mess tent the day after a battle?” Chrom said.

Robin sighed, “Uh well, Nowi didn't really have a place to sleep last night, so now she's taken over my tent. I went to grab a little food for her.”

Chrom laughed, hard. His laugh was a hearty one. Lissa whipped her arm and made a tssshhhh sound, before giving him a discrete grin. Frederick glared.

“Yeah well that's your job to sort out I suppose is it not. Maybe you can go talk to Cordelia or something. She's memorized every little bit of stock we have after all. She may be able to find a tent for our dear manakete friend. Why didn't you just room her with Panne though? I here she is the only one in her tent.”

“Yeah well Panne kicked her out real fast apparently. Maybe taguel and manakete don't get along? I should look into it. Maybe ask Miriel. She seems to know a lot. Or I could just straight up question Panne. Who knows?” He said in a thinking manner.

“Yeah well you better get some food and take it to that little wifey-poo of yours before she gets hungry,” Lissa giggled.

Robin sighed and got in line at the hall. Maribelle was serving the food that morning so it was bound to be some fanciful dish, and he wouldn't mind a cup of rousing tea right about then. Something to really perk him up for the day. Marching wasn't exactly his favorite thing, and being tactician granted him no special favors, or rather, he couldn't ride a horse, and didn't have the time to learn. He was sure that it was not particularly simple learn to control one, but he definitely would not be going into battle on a war horse anytime soon.

There weren't any apples at the table, as Maribelle had neglected to put such a simple fruit in her arsenal. There were; however, oranges. He was certain Nowi wouldn't be too picky about what fruit he brought her. Hopefully.

Robin stuffed some toasted bread and sausages into his mouth and grabbed a large mug normally used for alcohol and filled it with tea. He would drink it on the way. It was steaming and warm and chock full of goodness.

He sipped the hot drink from his mug as he left the tent while Chrom called out to him.

“Good luck!”

He waved and stuffed another sausage into his mouth. Without swallowing his food he took another sip of the good tea. Today was going to be an interesting morning.


	2. Tracking

“What the hell are you doing Nowi? Dear Naga!” Robin shouted in surprise.

Robin was rather confused as he had brought back the orange for Nowi, who proceeded to eat it whole. She took a bite out of it like it was an apple.

“Isn't that really bitter?” he said.

Nowi shrugged and took another bite. At that moment Stahl chose to run into their tent.

“What happened? Robin why were you shou-” he cut himself off after seeing Nowi, “Dear Naga my eyes are bleeding.”

He ran out crying, and covering his face with his hands.

Robin sighed. He looked at the manakete. She looked young and innocent but she was old enough to know why what she was doing was weird. To humans at least. Putting that aside, he was interested in her clothing.

They were in the middle of Plegia, and as the sun rose in the sky so did the temperature. She was wearing a heavy looking long-sleeved shirt which was tightened at the wrists so it wouldn't ride up.

“Aren't you going to to be really hot in such a thick piece of clothing?” he asked.

Nowi countered, pointing her orange at Robin, “Aren't you wearing a heavy cloak? It looks like it weighs just as much as me.”

Robin took a quick step outside and looked around for a minute. Seeing nobody nearby he popped back into the tent to answer the confused Nowi.

He leaned in and whispered, “to tell you the truth, its climate controlled. It is quite cool under the cloak. It has a powerful magic laced into the fibers of it. Don't tell anyone else they might get mad.”

Nowi seemed to understand as she nodded and finished downing her orange. Then she reached out and took his mug of tea and finished that off too. He stood there speechless as she walked out of the tent.

“Well I'm gonna go find someone to play with,” Nowi dismissed.

Robin called after her, “Hey you should at least help me clean up the tent, you slept here you know.”

But she was gone.

Robin sighed, and set about packing his tent up for the day. His high position in the army allotted him a knave who would come and pack his things into the carts, but he still organized everything and packed the contents of his desk away for safety.

After his things were all packed away he set himself to the task of finding Cordelia. She was the only one in the army who would be able to tell him whether or not there were any available tents from memory. She was a genius but he wouldn't say it to her face. It was a rather sensitive topic for her.

Fortunately he was in a great deal of luck. He found her in the first place he looked. She was finishing her breakfast in the mess tent, along with Sumia and Miriel. Unfortunately for him though, in the night one of the soldiers had accidentally set fire to his tent and burned a whole mess of them down. It seemed that not only would Nowi not be getting her tent, but that several soldiers would be looking for people to share with them.

Robin walked out of the tent sighing. He was going to supervise the take down of the tents. It would be more than an hour before the army was on the move again, and he had to make sure that they got ready properly. The heat was beginning to make them all sluggish, so it would probably take even longer than he estimated. They wouldn't be able to procure more tents or even any kind of shelter until the next city in their path, which was at least a week away and a midpoint in the journey before they reached the capital.

They were moving faster than any army normally should when out on the march but they did have a good cause. Because of Emmeryn's captivity and looming execution they were pushing their soldiers to march for more hours everyday. They started as close to sunrise as they could and didn't end until nearly sundown. The army regularly ended up pitching their tents in the dark by fire light. The shepherds had it easy in the fact that Miriel had invented a light spell that would glow brighter than a fire and could light their whole section of the campsite.

Robin took his list out and began checking off squads and platoons as they completed their routine packing for the morning. Marks were given to especially slow units, and merits to those who completed their task in record time. When drills were run once a week the slower units were tasked with more work. More laps and and more push-ups. Crunches were a must, as well as many more repetitions of weapon drills.

Soon enough, or rather, not soon enough, they were off on the march. Their destination was a line as straight as possible to reach the capitol of Plegia the quickest. Their rapid approach was leaving every member of the arm absolutely exhausted, but the moral was high. If Robin had to be a little tired and grumpy for the army to be in a generally good mood he would take that as a fair trade off. They all felt safe with him pulling the strings, and there was little dissent among the troops.

Robin had great confidence in their success in bringing Emmeryn home to Ylisstol. Though his plan for what to do once they actually get to the Plegian capitol were constantly changing as he thought of new scenarios and possible mistakes.

For the time being though, all he could do was prepare. There wasn't going to be any reaction to situations until they actually entered the battlefield.

****

The march that day had felt to be extremely long and arduous. Even Robin, with his special secret cloak, was beginning to over heat and feel the powerful effects of the desert sun. however night had not set in and he was now beginning to get rather cold. That was something about the desert that truly fascinated him. It was so horrendously and unbearably hot during the day, yet it was as cold at night as it was hot, or it at least seemed like it.

The cold was easily chased out by a good fire, so that was where Robin was. Nowi seemed to have attached herself to him, as even though there was plenty of space around the fire and only a few other people, she had chosen to sit next to him. Not just by his side, but to the point were as she swayed back and forth to some invisible song she would brush against his shoulder.

He didn't miss the odd glances that everyone around the fire tossed to him occasionally as the petite girl next to him quietly hummed to herself. The only one who didn't seem to care was Panne, but that was perhaps just the way those of her species acted, or maybe the fact that she didn't like Nowi for whatever reason. He didn't like that there was some rift in the shepherds.

Suddenly Nowi stood up and dusted herself off.

“This is all boring and stuff. I'm going to go to bed,” she said.

Nowi stomped off towards his tent. He wouldn't think of it as hers to until she helped him clean it up in the morning. Robin sighed.

He looked back at the fire for a moment but was interrupted by a loud shout coming from his tent. It was Nowi and she was yelling at someone. Everyone at the fire stood alert and Robin set off at a quick pace towards his quarters.

He ripped the flaps of his tent to find Nowi wrestling with a stranger on the dirt floor of his tent. Immediately he set himself into action. He wrestled the man away from Nowi to avoid harming her. Then he pinned the man down with his arms behind his back and his wrists twisted into a painful position.

“Go grab some people Nowi. We have to restrain him for questioning,” Robin said.

Nowi immediately ran out of the tent, and not soon after Vaike and Sully were in there with rope to help Robin tie the offender up. Afterwards they transported him to a different location to be put under watch and prepared for questioning. Interrogation was not his forte nor something he particularly wanted to get a good view of, so instead of assisting in that he left to go clean up his tent.

Inside the tent Nowi was sitting cross legged in her cot, covered in her blanket, though she wasn't relaxed. She was sitting and staring at the entrance, and then him once he entered. He could see that the assailant had hit her pretty hard in the mouth. A welt was beginning to form and there was a bit of dried blood.

“Why didn't you go get that checked out by Lissa or Maribelle?” Robin said, pointing to her injured cheek.

Nowi shrugged, “nah I'm too sleepy. I was just getting to bed.”

With that she spread herself out on her own cot and let the blanket cover her. She turned to face the other direction.

Robin did his best to not disturb her as he cleaned up his tent. It seemed that the assailant had been rifling through his paperwork as they were all out of order, not to mention strewn about the room. He spent a good hour finding all the papers and reorganizing them all into proper order. Once that was finally done he took his cloak and trousers off and lay in bed in his long undergarments.

He lay in his cot, yet he could not fall asleep. His thoughts drifted to the attacker. He wondered how the spy had managed to enter his tent without anyone seeing him. He wondered how the spy knew to enter his tent. It made him question whether or not the man was from the Ylissian-Feroxi coalition. He would have to bring that matter to attention in the morning, if someone hadn't already thought of it.

Needless to say. Robin's thoughts kept him up well into the night, far past what he even usually stayed awake to study tactics. He did eventually sleep though.

 

More than a week later and they had still not managed to procure any kind of tent or canopy in order to give Nowi a room, and him his space back. The manakete girl had flooded his tent with her collectible things she picked up around the campsite and on the trail. She would pack them all up every day,- thank Naga- but have them all splayed out again by the time he was in his cot for sleep. They were all small little trinkets and baubles.

Mostly she gathered shiny rocks and pebbles, but if he looked hard enough at her piles of things he would be able to make out other little bits. Gold coins, wooden carvings someone had more than likely thrown out, small pieces of colorful cloth. She didn't seem to have a limit to what exactly she would gather. He had even approached her to make sure that she wasn't stealing any of it.

He asked her, and when he did she pouted, stomped her foot, and crossed her arms before giving him a response.

“What do you take me for? Some kind of sneak thief? No way would I do that to people's things. All my stuff is gathered fair and square,” she had said.

Robin's only response was to take a deep breath. He gave up with it.

While they couldn't find any tents in the last major city they occupied, Robin did manage to procure a book on manakete of all things. It covered the general statistics, anatomy, and history of the species. Once he had the book he added it to his rotation of reading, and began studying the textbook. It was a book he only broke out when tactics began to give him a serious headache.

Robin hadn't gotten around to borrowing another book from Sumia, so he used the manakete book as a replacement. It was, overall, beneficial to him, considering he had a manakete imposing on his space. Among other things he had come to understand why she began hoarding things, and decided that he couldn't do anything about it.

He wouldn't have forced her to stop anyway. Intrusive as her habits were, she was sharing the space with him, and did deserve some bit of freedom in how the place looked. Well he thought like that anyway. Robin was almost certain that if he had consulted Vaike, for example, on the matter, he would have received some advice about taking control of his own life because he was his own man.

Over the past few days since they had occupied the recent city and moved on, he could say that he learned quite a bit about his new roommate. It appeared that he would have to share a space with her for the rest of the campaign after all.

It appeared that the campaign would soon be over however, as they were just two days time away from the Plegian capitol and saving Emmeryn. His strategy was nearing it's finishing touches, and he planned for their arrival to be at an exact time. The day that they arrived was scheduled for the Exalt's execution. It was a strategy that Gangrel would surely not think of.

His strategist might have thought that they would wait until the last minute to do the rescue, but there was no way that they would think of how he would carry out the operation. It was completely insane. An ingenious plan. It was a plan putting absolute trust in his army. It was something that a man like Gangrel could never think of in his own selfishness and hatred of others. He wasn't know as “The Mad King” for nothing.

Ever since they had moved within a week's range of the Plegian capitol Robin had been running his own scenario over and over in his head. The moves of the pieces repeated over and over in his head. All he could think of was the upcoming battle. It was quickly encroaching on his very soul until he had to ride with the caravan in order to avoid injuring him self by walking into a ditch or letting himself get run over by a horse. Courtesy of Chrom's orders he was confined into a covered wagon for many hours on end.

It was the most infuriating thing to him. He couldn't see the progress of the army from within the wagon. He couldn't see the landscape. He couldn't prepare for a surprise attack beyond just considering army sizes and types without some idea of the general terrain.

Robin couldn't assess the condition of soldiers, he wouldn't know which units to send where. What platoon needed to be where. He couldn't assess their physical preparedness to be in the front lines. What if he sent a unit forward in battle when they were far too tired too-

“Hey what'cha thinkin about Robin?”

The surprise question and presence of the manakete in the wagon made Robin literally jump skywards, or rather, wagon-wards, and he smashed into the ceiling of the covered wagon. He could feel the warmth of the heavy cloth on the back of his head.

Nowi fell over in a laughing fit.

“Dear gods. Hehehe! Oh-haahha! I scared you!” she cried.

Nowi was sobbing and hiccuping while trying to contain herself. Her hard, wheezing laughter had some effect on it. Robin began to let out his own laugh, though a bit more subdued, at the sheer amazement of her laughter. Quickly it escalated to dangerous levels of hysteria, and both Robin and Nowi were holding themselves by the sides. They calmed down for a moment, but one look at each other sent them both back into hysteria. Neither of them stopped until Robin started gagging and retching as his body tried to gain control.

“Gods. Robin control yourself,” Nowi giggled, before quickly descending back into her fit.

Robin looked on in sheer amazement as to how she could keep going. He was busy choking on nothing trying to recover after such a long time of being unable to breath. He was also in some deal of pain, and nearly sure that he had bruised his ribs. He could only attribute it to her tough manakete body.

After some time she finally stopped. While he waited he had rested his head up against one of the small wooden support columns of the wagon and waited. He took a couple of deep breaths and calmed himself down after that completely senseless bit of laughter.

When Nowi was finally finished and had enough energy to calmly move herself onto the bench, she place herself next to him.

“Phew that was good, eh?” Nowi nudged his side with her elbows, causing him to flinch away.

“Ow. Careful Nowi I think I bruised my ribs,” Robin said.

“Oh? What? You can do that to yourself?” Nowi question, as she brought her hand up and rubbed her ear.

“Yeah well, I was holding myself pretty hard in order to avoid literally having my sides split apart.” Robin responded, “anyway. Why are you even in the wagon? It was cleared out of other soldiers so I could rest alone.”

Nowi thought for a moment before answering.

“Well I'm still pretty sleepy after so long of dealing with those Grimy bozos for such a long time you know. Sometimes I get really sleepy around mid-day. Well not sometimes. I think pretty much everyday I've had to go ride the wagons. Thanks though, for clearing out the wagon. With all those soldier guys in here it makes it weird you know? They kinda scoot away from me whenever I jump on the wagon. Its weird, but I can't help being this intimidating lil' ol' thing,” Nowi said, and winked at Robin.

Just like that, their conversation hit it off for the day. They talked the day away. Their chat ranged all over. As they sat and talked the sun steadily, and quickly, it seemed, fell into near obscurity beyond the horizon.

The wagon slowly creaked to a stop as the steam of the army crashed to a halt. The movement of the entire congregation was always a wave of sorts at stopping time. The center of the massive blocks of men would stop, and it would spread out from the commander in the middle like the ripples of water on a pond. It was as if the centurions themselves were the drops of water as they took up the call to cease for the day.

Tents were pitched in the near dark, and barricades were ignored in place of haste. While the army would normally set up some kind of barricade around the perimeter of the camp, the general speed of their current campaign could only allow for a night's watch to be put into place. In the matter of two hours the camp city was set up yet again and for the final time before going home.

Sometime the next day, a short while after noon they expected to arrive at the capitol. If things went as predicted, they would arrive prepared for battle as the Exalt was being ferried to her place of execution. Just as she would be ferried to her death, so would they ferry her into the safe arms of her nation. 

That was for tomorrow. While he was unable to do anything else about the future other than prepare, that didn't let the nagging nauseated feeling leave him. For now though, he was to have one last chance to rest and relax before the battle on the morrow took his energy.

In celebration of the last night, Robin sat outside of his tent, and at a fire surrounded by other shepherds. He took part in swapping stories around the fire. Everyone was attempting to cheer themselves up in preparation for the grim reminder of what reality really was the next day. While he had limited memory, and thus, a limited supply of stories to tell, he did enjoy hearing others' stories.

In particular, the time when Sully actually got Frederick to arm wrestle her. It apparently took quite a bit of convincing from her side, and a little bit of nudging and hinting from Chrom. When the match began it had already ended. Sully gave great detail of how floppy and useless her broken arm was afterwards. Needless to say, nobody ever challenged Frederick to a game of strength again.

It was those such stories that they shared around the campfire. Silly stories. Embarrassing stories. Weird stories. There was no shortage of tales to tell around the fire. After some time though, Robin grew weary and decided to step out of camp for a short while.

As he passed by a patrol of watchmen they stopped and saluted him. As his position dictated, he stopped and gave them all the same courtesy. Then, he went on his way.

Some ways away from camp he stopped and found an excellent spot on a rocky ledge overlooking an incredibly short drop. Really it was just high enough off the ground for him to let his legs hang over the side without brushing the ground below. The clean breeze away from the army was something else.

He sat for a moment to just enjoy the clean air. There was no smell of unwashed men. There was no smell of camp smoke. Not even a whiff of the thousands of horses they transported with them. It was a completely refreshing experience, and he made note to step away from the main group a little more often to let his nose clear. That was when it happened.

“Robin hey watch out!” a voice said in alarm.

What? Robin turned to look at the source of the voice. At the same time, some blunt object smashed directly into his face. Having still being seated by the small cliff, he fell the short distance to the bottom and landed on his back facing skywards,

At the ledge a figure leaned over the edge to get a better look on her hands and knees. Yeah Nowi was looking down at him.

“What are you doing Nowi? Trying to kill me? What did you throw at me?” Robin grumbled.

Above him he could see the manakete's silhouette shift slightly. He couldn't make out her actual features as his position did not allow for direct moonlight to show itself. Normally the desert moon would give him an excellent view of his surroundings, though he was sure that she could see him nearly perfectly.

“Sorry Robin, I saw a snake, or I guess I was hunting it. I wanted to try to nail it with a rock,” she said.

She held up a vaguely round object, which gave off a faint glowing shine.

“Nowi you threw your dragonstone at me?” Robin questioned from his prone position.

“Nu-uh its not my dragonstone. Its not even close to cool enough or precious enough for it to be my dragon stone,” Nowi exclaimed.

She then proceeded to produce something else from who knew where, probably actual thin air. He was becoming convinced that she could just store objects with magic or something similar.

The object she was presenting to him was indeed a great deal more magnificent than the rock she had thrown at him. It gave off an actual glow. It wasn't just somewhat shiny and reflective like the other rock. He could tell that it was definitely the aforementioned dragonstone.

“It may not be as impressive as a dragonstone, but it still looks quite valuable, and you were tossing it around at some snake. Why are you hunting game with a rock again?” he questioned.

“Idoknow. I just saw the snake and it just kinda... happened...?” Nowi trailed off as she pouted, “Anyways it's kind of an important stone. It was hard to find you know?”

“Then why are you throwing it around?” Robin questioned.

“The snake. Remember silly billy? You know? Those really slithery, slimy things,” Nowi was exasperated.

Robin looked up at her, “Uh-huh.”

He stood up and made his way up and around the cliff. He then held his hand out at her.

“Here let me see the rock I'm going to see if I can't hit it when it comes back out of hiding. It can't be much different than casting magic. Its all about the focus and control. It takes a truly steady mind in order to do it well.” He said.

“Oooh,” Nowi exclaimed, as she handed him the shiny rock.

She seemed a bit nervous, though about what, he didn't know. She stood next to him and waited patiently for the snake to appear yet again. Luckily after only a short while waiting, the little creature snuck its head out of a crack in the rock. Beside him Nowi let out a heavy breath.

Taking in his own breath, Robin prepared himself. He narrowed his focus and gripped the rock. Then, he launched it striking the snake directly in the skull, knocking it unconscious.

“Wowwie Robin! That was amazing! You have to show me how to do it. Just like that. I want to be able to throw stuff like that,” Nowi said, as she mimed a throwing motion.

“Well, alright then. I guess we have some time, and it is bright enough with this desert moon. Okay,” Robin affirmed.

Next, Robin handed the shiny rock to Nowi and moved behind her. He reached out and grabbed her wrists in order to help her mime the motions better. It was his experience that experiencing something was the best experience. He felt that her getting to feel the motions was far better than him just showing her how to do it.

Therefore, he was standing close behind her, nearly pressing himself against her body in order to better teach her. He could feel that she flinched and froze as he gripped her wrists. She was still wearing the long shirt, though out in the desert night it was necessary. He had given up on asking what she was doing wearing such a thick outfit. He could understand a thinner shirt being used for protection against burns from the harsh sun, but not some winter thick shirt. It would be far to stifling for him.

She relaxed quickly into his grip, her surprise at such an action having been calmed down. Now Robin was guiding her upper body through the motion of properly throwing something for accuracy. It was all in the wrist, so to say, as he spent a great deal of time explaining the motion of the wrist to her so she could know how to actually catapult the rock at things.

He would start her all the way from a tilted position and fluidly move her to the point were she would allow the rock to fly from her hand at the target.

“I'd tell you it was all in the wrist, but you should also remember the other parts of your body that have to move in order to give the throw more power. I guess you could say it's all in the wrist, but it starts with the legs,” Robin instructed, as he took her through the motion again one last time, “Alright now you can try it. See that little notch in the stone right there?” he pointed, and she nodded, “you're going to hit that spot.”

“Okidoky Robiyoki. Let's give this a try,” she said.

Robin sighed at the name.

 

Aversa left the luxurious bed of the mad king and left him to his childish sleep. She dressed herself and left the room. Then she proceeded through a number of winding pathways and halls, making sure her path was far too confusing to follow. She couldn't have any of that. A killing in the castle would rouse suspicion after all. After a brief check to insure that no one was coming she quietly cast the spell and stepped through the dark tunnel that opened up in front of her. Afterwards she closed the passageway entrance and proceeded into the depths of the castle's secrets.

After a long series of tunnels she came upon a large circular room, lit by candlelight. The large circle of candles cast an eerie glow, and a snake like man sat in the middle of this circle.

“How are things going with the king, Aversa?” the man questioned.

“Excellent my lord. Everything is according the plan. All goes as you deign it. Even the very waters of the world would be at your beck and call,” Aversa chuckled.

“We are tracking the Ylissians as we speak. That spell of yours is doing wonders for intelligence, my darling,” the man said.

“Hehe. Eexcellent,” she said, long and sultry.


	3. NO!

All of the Plegian capital and its surrounding fields were in absolute chaos. The Ylissian-Feroxi contingent had assaulted and surrounded everything. Half of their army was in a turtle lock with with the Plegian forces, and the other half was occupying the city and rooting out any other soldiers.

That's what Robin assumed was going on. Based on his plans he knew what should be happening, but not what was really happening. He was with the shepherds, and they were advancing towards the execution yard along with a task-force-in-hiding of Pegasus Knights. Robin's plans were all coming together in one conglomerate success. Even the mix of unit types within the enemy lines seemed to hold up to his predictions.

There was just one thing. Ahead of the lines, there seemed to be a commotion that was drawing the attention of a number of the Plegian forces. Robin called Cordelia over to him.

“Cordelia can you take me up into the air for a moment? I need to see what's going on.” Robin shouted over the din of the battlefield.

“Of course Robin. Hop on and don't be afraid to hold on tight,” was her response.

Soon Robin was in the air and receiving some rather important information. From his vantage point he could see what looked like a lone women fending herself against the Plegian forces. She seemed to be doing well, though he could tell that she had a leg injury.

Robin landed and hopped of the pegasus. Cordelia had conveniently placed him near Chrom. That was a good thing, because he needed to speak with him.

“Chrom! There seems to be a woman in need of assistance of that way, behind those rocks! She is being surrounded by a number of the enemy. Take Sumia and Nowi with you,” Robin finished.

“Yeah got it,” was his response.

“What? I heard my name,” Nowi appeared next to Robin.

“Nowi you are going with Chrom over that way,” Robin said, not entirely unsurprised by her sudden appearance.

“Roger-dodger,” she responded.

Then, they were off to go and rescue the woman that he had seen. He saw as Chrom called for Sumia. He mounted her pegasus and went off into the air, with Nowi close behind.

Robin turned his attention to the front line of the shepherds, which was about to crash against another wave of the enemy.

“Ricken, Miriel, with me. Lets hit that first line with a wave of magic,” Robin Commanded.

He moved in front of the line, along with Miriel and Ricken. All three of them began to chant out of their books. The strategy was to deliver an unavoidably devastating magical mix of the three primary schools of Anima. Interesting things always tended to happen when combining the magics together. It almost always involved some kind of large explosion that sent the enemy flying. Literally soaring through the air.

Their spells hit the charging enemy line and created the desired effect, sending the first line everywhere and knocking down the second line. Before the lines could regroup and reach them, Robin, Miriel, and Ricken abandoned the front and moved to the back in order to avoid the oncoming chaos.

Robin took out his sword and moved into the line. Space was made for him, and the line grew longer. They were at a true numbers disadvantage, but Robin was not worried. He was confident of their far superior skill.

“Charge!” he gave the command that set the Shepherds into motion.

They plowed forward, not stopping for the fallen and injured they caused. The line was never broken, and quick progress was made as they broke through and decimated the enemy in front of them. While they certainly were making good progress, the constant pressure from aerial support. More than half of their fliers were away on a short mission. Cordelia was the only one that they had to throw heat down into the enemy. One javelin thrower was not enough to stop or even slow the enemy. Without Sumia and Nowi to help her, Cordelia wouldn't be able to offer much support.

Then Robin had the idea to send Virion into the air with Cordelia. It was genius. He backed out of the line in a moment of respite and signaled for Cordelia and Virion to come to him.

“Alright. Idea time guys. Virion I need you to ride with Cordelia and provide bow support from the air. Pick out primary targets. That means archers and mages. If you can get a good shot, any heavily armored ones too. Make sure to watch out for enemy wyvern riders, you'll have a much easier time at picking them out of the sky from a level field of play. Good luck, don't die, go get'em,” Robin delivered his orders.

Ahead of them now, Robin could both see and hear as the shepherds destroyed another line of the enemy. Virion and Cordelia took off, and as they flew away Chrom, Sumia, and Nowi landed. On Nowi's back was the woman who Robin had seen earlier, along with a far more scantily clad woman. The two on her back did not look comfortable next to each other. They dismounted from Nowi and the one clad in white bowed. He could see that she was performing a ritual of prayer directed at Nowi. This let him know that she was among the Naga faithful.

The other, less clothed woman, took several steps to the side and looked down and away from Nowi. She looked to be a dark mage.

It then occurred to Robin, for the first time, that not only was Nowi a manakete; she was also a Divine Dragon. It had never crossed his mind to think that she was a Divine Dragon, though she fit the description from his book that he had acquired.

Robin approached the cleric in order to speak with her.

Behind him the shepherds were locked in place by a line of heavily armored soldiers.

“My lady, can I inquire as to your name?” Robin asked.

“Sir, if you would please, I am a man.” the not-woman said.

Robin coughed, “excuse me?”

Chrom burst into a short spurt of laughter, “Haha yeah. Got me too the first time.”

“What? Ah, never mind. We'll have a cleric tend to your wounds in the mean time sit tight and be patient,” Robin sighed, “Hey Lissa!”

“What? I'm busy here. Give me a minute,” she responded.

It was true she was finishing up a a large wound on the side of Lon'qu's leg. It looked like he had been speared through. Once she was done patching him up he lept forward and rejoined the fray. Lissa ran over to them.

“Okay what?” she was breathing somewhat heavy.

“Liss could you tend to her- er his wounds right now. Nowi, Sumia get into the air and start giving some support. Chrom who is that one?”

“Sure Robby.”

“At once, Sir Robin,”

“She's a Plegian dark mage. Her name is Tharja. She's tired of following the orders of the Mad King, and expressed an interest in joining our ranks,” Chrom said.

“I see...” Robin looked her up and down.

Tharja looked up at him briefly before lowering her head again, pulling her dark tome even closer towards her chest.

“Tharja could you go over there,” Robin pointed at the other mages, “and help out our mages, they'll give you some instruction.”

“Yes... sir,” she responded, before swaying off.

“Chrom let's join the ranks and push forward,” Robin said, looking the prince in the eyes.

Chrom looked at Nowi flying in the air, and then him, then, he smirked.

“Roger-dodger, Robby”

Robin sighed. It was the middle of a battle, and Chrom was teasing him. It really wasn't the moment, but he supposed Chrom could do what he wanted. He was a prince, and in a good mood. They were getting ready to save his sister after all.

****  
Forward to the end of the battle

“Alright Robin. The battle has finished and their general has fallen I'm giving the signal,” Chrom said.

At which point he whistled and made some deft movement with his arms and hands. Then seemingly out of nowhere, a hoard of pegasus knights launched into the sky.

From his point of vantage, Robin could see some kind of extreme physical reaction from Gangrel atop his balcony at the sight of the armada the pegusi. Then a very, very, feminine figure showed up next to Gangrel on the balcony, and Robin could only assume that it was Aversa.

Suddenly, truly suddenly, everything went to Hell. Out of the sky came Risen. A horde of Risen. It was a force far greater in numbers than shepherds. It was a larger number than they had ever faced. And they were all archers.

And then his armada of pegusi were falling from the sky all at once.

Then in his shock, as his plans and everything else fell apart in front of him, he could hear Gangrel's voice from the long distance away.

“Don't move another inch you Ylissian dogs, or I'll turn your beloved Exalt into the world's largest pin cushion. Surrender the Fire Emblem to me and we can avoid this now hmm? I'll let that pretty little exalted highness, your sister, go, if only you would relinquish that petty little family trinket of yours,” Gangrel growled.

Chrom turned to Robin, searching for guidance, but there was none in him. Robin was frozen in place. He was stuck, in body and mind. Failure spat him right in his face for the first time. It was awful and he could do nothing. No amount of tactical thinking could get them through what he was seeing in front of him, because what he saw in front of him was despair and defeat.

They weren't just in a tight spot in a fight. It wasn't a situation to be overcame. It was already over and done. It was the feeling he was sure that the king on a chess board felt when loss was eminent. After every other on of the pieces had been claimed and he was the last one.

No. This was worse than that by far.

Then, as he stood and everything around him collapsed in on him, he could hear Emmeryn speak, and he couldn't hear her. He knew she was speaking, but he couldn't hear her, and Chrom was screaming, and running towards Emmeryn, and Emmeryn was falling through the air towards the ground.

She fell down, and down for an eternity, Chrom ran, and ran to save her for an eternity. Beside him Lissa was crying, and Frederick was holding her. Eternity was soon over and Emmeryn crunched to a halt. She landed with a horrible angle, and everything was wrong.

Then Flavia was there, and everybody was running. Everything happened too fast for his numbed mind to handle. He couldn't tell who was carrying him, until everything suddenly came into focus and he saw the blue haired man who had thrown him over his shoulder.

“Chrom,” Robin rasped, “Put me down. Let me go!”

And Chrom dropped him and he landed on his back. He got to his feet and didn't have time to steady himself. He had to keep running. He stumbled forward as fast as he could. The Risen were in pursuit of them, and he had to keep running. Robin launched forward into the desert after Chrom and the others. Then, not too long after, it started raining.

The terrain quickly became a slog, and the Shepherds were sloshing through puddles of water and mud as deep as their knees at times. Still they had to keep going. Who knew how close behind them the enemy was?

Robin slowly gathered himself together as their pace became a crawl. He was attempting to emotionally right himself enough to be able to stoically assess the situation. No matter his failure he had to keep going. It was too late to fix the past, but he could stop the future from having its own way. He was at the back of the pack, and he could see the caravan of his defeated comrades ahead.

It was then that he steeled himself, because he realized that he had something to protect now. It was those people he could see in front of him. The people he had let down. They were the people that had ultimate trust in him, and he them. It was a relationship that he had compromised, but it was still a relationship, and he would have to work hard to fix that tarnished relationship that he had garnished from them.

Now he carefully made his way to the very front of the group, assessing the situation and condition of his people as he went. He mentally made a checklist of who was injured in need of care, and who would not be able to fight. Nearly all of them had arrow wounds of some kind, but there was not time to risk treating them. Those with wounds would need to wait until they found a safe spot to stop, or a spot were the wagons could appropriately carry them.

At the front of the crowd, Robin approached Chrom.

“We need to go to Regna Ferox to regroup and recuperate. If we want to finish this, we need time to rest and rethink a strategy,” Robin whispered to Chrom.

“What do we need to finish Robin? Emm's gone. Naga knows what happened to our army after we had to abandon them like that. What is there? Our entire reason for this war was to save my sister! What? Are we just going to go to Ferox, lick our wounds clean, then come back out here for seconds?” Chrom was raising his voice.

“Yeah,” Robin responded, “ We are going to Ferox and we are going to recover. Then we'll come back and finish this off. Just because Emmeryn is dead doesn't mean that Gangrel is going to stop killing. If anything, her death may encourage him to mount a full scale invasion on Ylisse. It's going to be our job to stop that from happening, so we are going to cut the weed at it's roots. We aren't just going to wait for the invasion to happen, Chrom. We are going to prevent it. So we are going to Ferox to recover, and then we are coming back.”

Robin's words seemed to make Chrom sink even further into the watery mud.

“Halt!” a man shouted at them, “I am General Mustafa. Surrender yourselves to me and I can promise you that no harm shall come to you.”

“General Mustafa, I am disinclined to believe that,” Robin shouted back.

“Is there no way that I can sway you to a peaceful ending tactician? I beg you to reconsider,” the general answered.

“NO. We will be taking our leave of this place very soon. If you aren't going to step back and allow us to pass then we will take up arms against you,” Robin responded.

Mustafa look Robin straight in the eyes and nodded.

“Very well. To arms then! But I would ask one thing of you tactician. Please. Spare my men,” the general said.

Robin took a look at the men in question. They looked just as demoralized as his own shepherds, maybe more so.

“Form up shepherds! Lets get through this,” Robin commanded.

Somewhere behind him he could hear Vaike give an aggressive roar. Everyone else gave him shouts of affirmation.

“Your orders are do not kill. Render them unconscious. Injure them if you must, healers exist for a reason, but I'll not have unnecessary blood spilled this day,” Robin finished.

The shepherds formed up into their respective small teams. The fight ahead of them was not one of holding the line, but sweeping forward in small squads. Through the heavy rain and mist they charged forward through deep sloughs in the ground, with near mountainous hedges of dirt on both sides. It was like little miniature valleys many times the length of a wyvern. As everyone disappeared down the corridors Robin realized that he would have to supervise everyone.

“Nowi can you give me a ride? I need to be able to see everything,” Robin shouted into the sky.

Nowi who was circling above, looking for victims, heard him and immediately descended to the ground. With a great slorping thud befitting a dragon landing in the mud, Nowi landed on the ground. Robin dashed towards her and jumped up on her back, carefully remembering that he was on the back of a soldier, and not a pegasus.

If it hadn't been raining he would be on the back of a pegasus, but the flying horses' exhaustion, coupled with the rain did not make for a good combination, so Cordelia and Sumia were both going it on foot. He didn't like riding Nowi, as she was far more useful in battle for combat rather than scouting. It was necessary to get a view of what he was doing.

The battle was long. Not because of the grueling combat, but because of the horrible condition of the field. More than once Robin had to direct Nowi to fly down and pull someone out of the mud before they sunk and suffocated. In the end, death was unavoidable, though somewhat preventable, and they were able to spare the lives of most the terrified men in front of them. Mustafa was not among those who survived.

Chrom faced the honorable General down in combat and bested him, thus ended the battle. All of Mustafa's soldiers threw down their weapons and surrendered. Instead of taking prisoners however, their only objective was to get out of there, and so they left the grieving soldiers to bury their superior in favor of leaving Plegia quicker.

Soon the ground became more grassy and more sandy and they were able to load onto the caravan and rest. Or well, rest as well as they could. Lissa, Maribelle, and Libra ran about and did their best to heal wounds, and then everyone separated into wagons. Instead of packing into a wagon with the rest of the shepherds, Chrom invited Robin to stay in his relatively empty wagon, personal to him and Sumia apparently.

Robin didn't care how weird it would be, he was going to get to sleep laying down and that was what mattered. It didn't really bother him that he was getting ready to sleep with his friend and the man's lover. While it was unannounced, and unofficial, Robin knew. In fact, pretty much everyone knew.

So then, Robin was lying down in a cart with two other people and trying to sleep, but something felt out of place. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable. It just felt weird. Nearby he could hear Chrom shifting around. The man was having it rough. Everyone was, but Chrom was completely beside himself. He didn't know what to do anymore.

It was best to just sleep, he supposed, but he had difficulty. He drifted off ever so slowly before the night finally took him.

****  
Several days later; Regna Ferox, Colosseum Palace.

They all unloaded the wagons and brought all of their things inside, of the building. As a contrast to the outside air, within the confines of the colosseum it was quite warm, warm enough that many of the shepherds began to take layers and layers off, except for Vaike of course.

Khan Flavia, in conversing with him, decided her hospitality was best served warm, and a warm meal was prepared for the shepherds. Robin had difficulty eating. All he wanted was to fall into a bed, but he knew that eating was necessary, and ignoring the Khan's generosity would likewise be a bad thing. So Robin sat quietly like everyone else and ate his meal.

After the meal, Flavia was kind enough to give them all their own room to use as they so desired, for the time being at least.

Robin found his room and was both surprised and nonplussed. The room was just as warm and atmospheric as the whole of the Colosseum. Animal skins, and even the head of a dear were mounted on the walls. His bed seemed to be crafted of skins, and the blankets, no surprise there, were also made of animal.

Quickly, and sloppily, Robin took his outer garments off and fell into the furry bed and wrapped himself in the warmth. He would have gone to sleep had a certain dragon interrupted him.

“Scoot over Robin. Let me under the covers,” Nowi grumbled.

She was rubbing her eyes and attempting to keep them open.

“Nowi? What are you doing? Don't you have your own room?” Robin questioned.

“Yeah I do,” Nowi responded, “It's just kinda lonely in there all alone, and it wasn't any fun. Now are you gonna make me sleep on top of the covers or are you going to let me get warm?”

Whether he responded or not, she was already getting into his bed under the covers. Robin sighed.

“Hold on, I'll just put on my coat and then sleep on top of the covers. It'll be fine,” he said.

But as he was gathering himself to get out of the bed a slender presence made to grabbed onto his army, and a very sleepy Nowi grabbed onto his arm and hugged it to her body.

“No!... Stay. Won't it be fine to be under the covers together? It isn't like we are gonna do something you know,” Nowi reasoned.

Robin sighed and got back into position. Nowi didn't relinquish his arm to him. Instead she only brought herself closer until she was right up against him. Robin tried to hide his blush at the pretty creature now holding him down into the bed. She was drifting off, and he couldn't very well disturb her. It didn't exactly feel wrong. If anything it felt comfortable. He could only hope to attempt to control himself and go to sleep.

“Your feet are cold,” Robin stated.

“You're really warm,” Nowi said sleepily.

****

Robin woke in the morning to the sun on his face. Damn Flavia, giving him a room with a window to the sunrise. A glass window was such a luxury too. Chrom, Robin, and Lissa were probably the only ones who got them. Maybe Frederick and Virion too. The fop would probably up and demand a better room if he wasn't given one.

Robin looked over and saw that Nowi was curled up into the smallest ball possible. So much so, that he had to lift the covers in order to find her, as she had disappeared beneath the many folds of blanket.

“Nowi,” he gently gripped her shoulder, “It's time to get up,” he whispered.

She unfurled herself and sat up like lightning. Before he could stop her she had scrambled out of the bed and stood facing him. Her pupils shrank to slits, and he saw the growing spikes of her teeth and claws.

“Nowi it's just me. Its Robin see?” he held up his hands.

She stood panting. He witnessed something miraculous occur right before his eyes. Her eyes transformed in shape back to their regular human form. He watched as her claws shrunk into fingernails. The aggressive air in the room dissipated.

She recomposed herself and sat back on the bed, going cross-legged.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to do that,” she apologized.

“It's perfectly all right. Did you have a nightmare?” he asked.

“Yeah. Sure,” was her response.

Robin pulled the blankets off himself and sat facing Nowi.

“Do you want to talk about it with me?” he asked.

She shook her head no. Her morning hair whipped past her face and fell over her shoulders as she did so. Robin looked away, to the wintry landscape outside the window.

After a moment, Robin scooted off of the bed and threw on his spare sandals.

“I'm going to go find the bath house. I'm certain such a luxurious place will have it's own plumbing. I could use a chance to wash away the grime of the desert,” Robin said.

“Uh-huh. I might go do that too,” she said, “a bath sounds nice.”

Robin pointed at her, blushing, “I may have shared my bed with you, but I will not be sharing a bath with you, just to make that clear. Go find your own tub of water to soak in.”

He patted her head, and she shrunk away from his hand.

“Go take your bath silly. Stop stalling, unless you really want me to get in the bath with you,” She drawled.

“Nope. Nope, I'm good. Lissa bugging me is enough thank you. I don't need anyone else doing it too. Nope. Goodbye,” he said, as he walked out of the bedroom.

*****

Nowi sighed as Robin noped out of the bedroom. She crawled to the headboard and sat against it, pulling her knees to her chest, and crossing her ankles. For some time she sat there, wondering how quickly Robin would come back to the room. She knew he would come back once he was done with his bath, he had left his coat in the room.

A thought struck Nowi, one could call it a powerful urge.

Slowly she crept out of the bed and across the room to the coat hanger near the door, where Robin's coat rested, calling to her. She wanted to know what wearing such a thing felt like. She stood on her toes and reached in order to pull it off the hanger without accidentally ripping it, if such a thing was possible, as it was on the very top rung of the coat hanger.

It was quite heavy, really heavy actually. She would compare it's weight to that of a sword. She found it to be made of a fine silken material. It wasn't incredibly stretchy but it was quite sturdy. She pulled one arm through it and then the other. The coat, which went all the way down and slightly passed Robin's knees, nearly scraped against the floor when she wore it.

She could immediately feel the effects of the enchantment magic Robin had told her about. The coat warmed up fast with her in it, until it was sitting at a comfortable temperature that served to keep her warm. She, as a manakete, did not have the greatest body temperature regulation.

The dark purple coat had sleeves that opened out near the end, creating a cone-like effect. Whatever magic that flowed through the coat was not Light magic in origin, that was for sure. She couldn't feel a thing. Given it's design Nowi suspected that it wasn't made from the Anima school either.

Quickly, in case Robin came back at any time, she pulled the coat off realizing that Robin would probably not like it if she was rifling through his things. She had felt numerous objects within the pockets of the coat. Robin carried several books around with him, as well as whatever other miscellaneous things he regularly carried on his person.

Once again careful to not harm the coat, Nowi placed it back on it's spot with the coat hanger. She watched as it swayed from the disturbance. Nowi hoped Robin wouldn't be able to tell anything had bothered his coat. She knew that he valued that coat over nearly all else.

Once she was sure it wasn't going to fall, and that it was in the proper place, Nowi left the room in order to go find her own bath, and not the one Robin was using.


	4. Slavers

“What’cha up to Robin? Boring stuff?” Nowi looked over his shoulder, “Yep. That’s as boring as can be. You should come play with me. Ricken stopped playing with me, and only leaves his room for meals. He’s studying or something. That’s all he does anymore.”

Nowi had barged into his room while he was busy drawing up various tactical plans. Well it was actually their room and he was living in a shared space with her, and for some reason, all of his complaining was getting him nowhere. Nobody would help him remove her. Nobody would take her either.

Robin sighed, “This is important tactical paperwork that needs to be done before we are to set out into the fields of combat again. I can waste time later, after I get this work done.”

She smacked him on the back of his head. With her sleeves of course, because she had taken to wearing long sleeves, and the one she had on right at that moment was long enough for her to slap him with the sleeves.

He heard a “Hmm” behind him, and could only assume that she was pouting like a child. Then, suddenly there was a wooden screeching sound, and Nowi was sitting in a chair next to him, bent over with her elbows on her knees, resting her chin in the cup of her hands.

“Well I’m not doing anything better right now,” Nowi mumbled, as she was still resting her chin against her hands, “so why don’t you tell me what you are doing, I need something to do.”

Robin sighed, “Well you see, as best as we can tell right now, Gangrel is celebrating our defeat. He has been on the move towards a villa nearer to the Feroxi boarder. We won’t know where exactly he is going, but we can tell that all he has with him is his honor guard. It’s a force small enough that we won’t need to get the army involved. Only the shepherds will have to go. Probably. The problem right now is that we aren’t sure if he is actually moving to his villa or not. You know I say villa, but the location is much more akin to a small fortress. Anyway, we aren’t sure, so I’m sitting here trying to think up something strategy-wise while I wait for the scouting report. Then I can begin to make real plans,” Robin finished.

“Yeah I knew it. You are just wasting time, you busy body. You could be resting, relaxing, or playing games with me. Instead, you are in here, wasting time over tactics when you don’t even know the enemy situation,” Nowi said. She was quite grouchy now, “If you don’t get up and get out of this room, I’ll drag you out, and if I have to transform to do it, then so be it,” she held out her dragon stone.

Robin sighed, and stood up from his work. He pushed his chair in and waited for Nowi to do the same. Of course she took her time, and so he sat and tapped his put while she scooted the chair across the room to the second desk. It made a very unsatisfying screeching noise across the stone floor. 

When Nowi was done, he led the way out of the room, “So what are we going to do...” 

 

Robin ended up doing nothing all day long with Nowi. They went and played a rather long game of tag with some local village children, among other things. The local cuisine was truly good. Lots of greasy, and meaty foods, and shockingly good ale. He had no desire to lose himself so early in the day, but a small mug wouldn’t have hurt, Nowi joined him in the alcohol. He had to say it was a bit awkward, but he chose not to speak. 

She looked incredibly young, far too young to be drinking. In Regna Ferox, there was, of course, no drinking age, and nobody looked their way. However, if they would have been in Ylisse, Robin was sure they would have, or rather he would have, gotten in some kind of trouble. Heck, she might have even passed for being of age in Ylisse. She looked very young but not that young. The public drinking age was fifteen after all. People could do whatever they wanted in the safety of their own homes, but publicly, those under their fifteenth year could not drink.

Nowi pulled him around all day long, and they were even spotted by some members of the shepherds, who were genuinely surprised to see him out of his room. They all, for the most part, knew how he was when it game to work. He could see sympathy in the eyes of Maribelle, and quite the opposite from Vaike, when he passed them by. Discretely as he could, so that Nowi didn’t see, he mouthed a number of rude words in Vaike’s direction.

Despite the war going on just over the border, the town was quite lively, which was very different from the Ylissian people as they learned of the war. The towns and villages became much more subdued in their daily work. 

They passed by a rather large book store, and as they did, a group of children game rushing by. 

“Do you want to play with us? We’re gonna race,” one of them asked Nowi.

Robin could see her brighten up, even brighter than usual at the offer. She was excited. Quickly she turned to him.

“Robin hold his for me will yah. Gotta beat these kids at a foot race,” She said, and handed him a shining orb.

Nowi left a very confused Robin to hold her dragon stone as she ran after the children. What could he do? She was already gone. Robin sighed, and looked around, until his eyes locked onto the bookstore. With nothing better to do, Robin headed into the bookstore and began to browse around.

They had an entire wall dedicated to tactical history. Many were biographies of great generals and tacticians. They depicted the lives of the individuals and their greatest achievements through life. What he found at the shelves surprised him, for it was a copy of a rare treatise on tactics. Seventeen ways to block a double edged sword. It might have appeared to the uncultured as a simple and plain book, not about tactics, but about sword fighting. 

Contrary to that it was actually the diary of a great tactician from times immemorial. It depicted battle ranging from great clashes of armies, to simple battles against bandits. The author went into great detail about his many strategical ploys, and true to its origin as a diary is was very realistic, including much of the author’s feelings and convictions. The book wasn’t for the faint of heart, and was a great source for people unaware of the horrors of war. It went far more into detail about the authors relationships with members of his army, and the loss of his comrades.

It was an instant buy for him, almost a steal, or rather he turned it into a steal, as he bartered with the store owner until he received an excellent offer for the book. He left the building satisfied with his new journal, that he would be intent to study in order to glean any information that he might. Now all that was left on his agenda was to find Nowi. Holding on to her incredibly precious Dragonstone made him nervous.

Of course, outside the store she was nowhere in sight. The children she had been playing with were nearby. He could see them from the store front.

Robin approached the children and asked, “Do you know where my friend went?”

One of the children stopped long enough to answer, “Don’t know. I think down that alley. Momma says not to go there.”

Robin sighed. It was probably a shady place that she had wandered into. He started walking towards it. Once he was inside of the alley he saw something.

At the end of the alley, on the other side, was a cart, and took cloaked men were trying to toss a struggling Nowi into the back of the cart. They had her limbs tied together, and a gag in her mouth.

The marauders saw him running, quickly and quietly towards them.

“Shit he’s coming. Hurry get her in there. We can’t lose this. You know how much she would make us. We could retire,” they said.

As he was running at them, full speed, all stealth abandoned, and lightning crackling at his fingertips a third man mad his appearance, and suddenly Nowi was in the wagon and rolling away. The men jump in the back after her.

He launched his charged spell aiming for a wheel of the wagon, and missing horribly as the wagon hit a bump in the path and launched into the air. 

Robin continued running feeling himself up, and realizing that he hadn’t brought his sword. He didn’t even have his spell book on his person. Without it, he barely had enough strength and focus of mind to launch a basic thunder spell. What he did have though, was the knife strapped to the inside of his boot. And he would need it.

He caught up to the wagon, before the horses were moving at full speed, and dove into the back of the wagon, fully startling his opponents. It was enough time to fire his single spell into the head of one of the perpetrators. His knife found its mark the skull of the second, and he ended up grappling with the third in the back. They rolled on the floor, and Robin had to be careful to not hit Nowi, who was watching everything from her spot on the floor. They had not blinded her with a cloth, so she got to see the bloody mess, and feel it too, as the man he had stabbed bled his brains out onto the wagon floor.

Robin had to say, that the experience of rolling around in a puddle of blood wasn’t the greatest experience. Quickly he subdued the attacker. Then, he left through the front flaps of the wagon and crashed his elbow into the side of the man’s temple. If he wasn’t unconscious then he was dead.

Robin grabbed ahold of the reins, and slowed the horses to a stop. Then he moved back into the wagon and picked Nowi up, along with his knife, and carried her out of the wagon. He laid her down, untied her gag, and cut her bindings. Robin thanked the gods that he had thought to secure his hidden knife before going out.

He didn’t realize how hard he was breathing until Nowi was holding onto him, and he could feel his chest push against her as he breathed. 

“Sorry Robin. I should have kept my Dragonstone with me. This wouldn’t have happened,” Nowi mumbled through his cloak.

“Don’t be sorry,” Robin replied, as he reached up to hold her head, “it wasn’t your fault, if anything would should have stayed together. Slavers wouldn’t dare to attack someone in a group. So saying, it was my fault.”

They stayed sitting together for some time, and in fact the blood had begun to dry and grow crusty when Nowi finally let go of him. While she got up and steadied herself, Robin released the horses from their tethers.

Then, he walked up to Nowi, “we need to work our way back to the city, before it’s too dark and cold to make it back safely. We’ll have to send somebody to clean this mess up in the morning. I’m sure the khans will accommodate. Do you think you can walk back?” Robin said.

“Yeah sure. I had some time to sit and recover. I can make it back to the city on my own two feet,” Nowi responded.

“Yeah,” Robin started walking, with Nowi beside him, “we should probably be discreet about reentering the city. We are both kind of covered in the blood of our enemies.”

Nowi Snorted, “Did you have to say it like that?”

“Of course. Nothing like a little light humor to lighten the mood,” Robin chuckled.

Together they made their way back to the city, just as evening was falling and the nightly chill began to set in. By the time they entered the city gates again, it was completely dark. 

“You know what Robin?” Nowi asked.

“Huh,” he responded.

“We could have flown back. I could have transformed. It would have been easy,” she said.

“Huh,” he breathed.

In the morning Robin went back out to the wagon with Frederick and a clean-up crew of Feroxi soldiers. Flavia had informed him that who they had been attacked by was a large group of slavers known as the Ezra group. They were prominent slavers in Regna Ferox, and were incredibly elusive.   
Apparently nobody knew what the leader Ezra looked like. This convinced Robin that they weren’t trying hard enough, because a well-trained spy could most definitely get intelligence on the slave group.

Perhaps he could sic Gaius on them. Enough candy could get that man to do anything, no matter how challenging, and he would succeed too. Well that was a thought for after the war. Permission from the khans would be required of course. They couldn’t very well go wandering about through Regna Ferox without the leadership’s permission.

Robin was just there to show them the location of the scene. The true work was being done by Frederick, and the cleaning crew, who would remove the bodies, and take possession of the wagon. Robin had to describe to him the event, the way that he killed them and the like. One of the cleaning crew members was a new soldier. Robin could tell, because he got sick at the sight of the dead, or perhaps it was the smell.

The smell of a dead rotting body was actually quite disgusting. It was horrible, and Robin could say that it was probably one of his least favorite smells in the world. It looked like the bodies had already been picked at by carrion flyers. They even had to shoo a couple vultures away before they could begin to prepare the bodies that Robin had brutalized. 

By the time they were done and heading back to the capital city, it was already noon. He had been out there since dawns first light, so he was hungry. They didn’t spend the whole time just prepping the bodies. They collected evidence, and did a small bit of tracking, because he hadn’t killed all of them. One of the slavers had been left alive, and had made his way into the wilderness. 

When it became apparent that the slaver was a bit too far gone for them to track safely, they headed back to the wagon and began working their way to the city. 

After Robin was finally back in his quarters, he had to tiptoe around Nowi who was still sleeping. In his bed. Because they wouldn’t give him a second bed, nor would they give him a separate room. He could swear that it was a conspiracy. They were just out to annoy him to no end. Nowi was fine to be around when he wasn’t tired or busy. It didn’t require much noise for him to get to work on his battle plans though. The scouts would be reporting soon. In the next day or two. 

Once he had the scout reports he could fully and finally prepare for the end of the mad king. Even now, he wasn’t really planning so much as running mental drills on himself. When he grew too hungry to ignore it, Robin left the room, quietly of course, and headed to the mess hall. There was always some kind of meal going on, given the eating habits of the various people within the colosseum. A small meal had him prepared to go out to the training yard. Or rather, it was the stadium within the colosseum, which, when not being used for competition was used as a training ground. From there he could run sword drills, and practice blowing things up without hurting too many people.

The rest of Robin’s day went by as such: he drilled himself on swords, and then sorcery. After that, he sparred with a few soldiers, mostly Lon‘Qu and Basilio’s honor guard. They were great soldiers when it came to combat. Basilio only had one mage, whom Robin ended up in a small discussion of the elemental magics. The man was a fire user himself, but Robin preferred the more zappy kinds of magic. They discussed the finer points of using either type of magic, offering demonstrations as they went.

At some point Nowi figured out where he was and terrorized the troops trying to train. Nobody could really expect it when a massive golden dragon flies out of the sky and just sits there. Most of the Ylissian army had seen her many times, and thusly continued their drills, but for other members of the army, it was very different. He caught them all staring at her massive form. He didn’t know why she hadn’t transformed back into her more human form yet. It took a lot of mental energy to maintain her dragon form.

Not that she wasn’t capable of indefinitely holding her draconic form, because given how old she was, he was certain she probably could. It was just easier for them to stay in human form. As he was sparring with a soldier, Nowi let out a massive roar, which startled his partner. Robin took advantage and proceeded to knock the man flat. 

“Can’t get distracted now. What would have happened if I was an enemy soldier?” he told the man as he helped him stand to his feet.

“Yes sir,” was the man’s only reply, to which Robin laughed. 

The soldier, Nathan was his name, would have beaten him in a fair match one on one with just swords. Nothing less could be expected of Basilio’s guard.

Once Robin was done, he took a ride on Nowi over to the mess hall’s outer entrance, or rather, the colosseum entrance closest to the mess hall, which was, conveniently right by their room. Then he got to find out why she had been in her dragon form all day long. She had been in her nightgown. This confused him.

As he understood from his book, manaketies had a sort of magic to change their attire. It was one of their oldest tricks, and usually gave them their signature outfit, as it was quite unique looking. It was less of an outfit or articles of clothing, but more like a magical wrapping. The manaketies, over centuries, had adapted a protective spell to take the form of clothing, but in reality it was just magical armor. Their armor was unique to each individual manakete. The book didn’t go into detail as to why each was unique. He didn’t think he had ever seen Nowi use it. He knew that she got dressed in the morning the old fashioned way, just like the rest of them by putting clothing on.

He would have to ask her one day if he could see it. He was quite curious.

The evening went as it usually did. Every night everyone gathered at the mess hall to eat a good meal together. It always with some kind of bang. That night, the great ending was Sully flipping Vaike over a table. Needless to say; everyone went to bed laughing, and Flavia had to replace the table. Thus ended another long day.

Nowi always waited until he was solidly in bed before she decided to hop in. He could never get over how warm she was. Her body temperature was much higher than his own, and it sometimes made sharing the bed difficult. So he had managed to procure an extra set of sheets and blankets for himself. Then he could have his own blankets and not have to worry about being too incredibly close to her. The blankets didn’t stop her from taking up all of the bed space with her small body. He was getting tired of fighting her for space all night long.

 

In the morning, while he was overviewing his tactics, one of the scouts finally returned. Someone was sent to retrieve him, and barged into the room. They showed no sense of sensitivity, in terms of how early it was in the morning. That was because it was Flavia, who barged into his room, woke up Nowi, looked at him. Then looked at her. Then, she looked at him and squinted, before shrugging.

“One of the Scouts has come back,” she said.

“I take it that he just got back. You barged in here for that, when you could have sent a much quieter person,” Robin responded.

Flavia just laughed, and motioned for him to come along. Robin sighed and got up from his desk to follow her out of the room, making sure to close the door quietly, as Nowi had pulled the covers over herself. 

Flavia lead him to the war room, were he assumed the scout would be, along with Chrom, and Basilio. A number of other leaders and retainers would probably be there. 

When they entered the room his predictions proved true. Every leader was there with their retainers. It made him wonder why he didn’t have a retainer, or some form of student or squire. Well he wasn’t technically a leader. His job was important, but he didn’t even necessarily need a retainer. He definitely did not need a Frederick in his life. No way could he handle a crazy knight-butler who collected pebbles from out of his way.

As Flavia and Robin moved into the war room, the scout bowed low.

“Sir Robin, I have the report available,” the scout said.

On the table were Robin’s usual spot in the war room resided, was a pamphlet of notes.

“Sir, it was as you predicted. King Gangrel has taken up residence in his villa on the northern plains. With him he has not an army, but just his honor guard, some 80 men, as well as a host of servants. The terrain is somewhat rocky with dirt plains. To the east of the fortress is a forest, and to the northwest is a river. Across the river is a small fort, where there will likely be reinforcements waiting should we assault the king,” he said.

Robin nodded, “thank you scout. You are dismissed. Go take a break, you deserve it. We’ll be moving out soon if plans go well.”

The scout bowed again, before promptly leaving the room. 

“Alright what’s the plan,” Basilio said.

Robin grinned, “Calm down old man. I just found out about the layout of the land.”

“Hey!” Basilio shouted.

“Calm down Oaf,” Flavia said.

“Hey I didn’t say that I didn’t have a plan, the fortress with reinforcements just changed them a little bit. What I propose is that we sneak up on them in the night, and remove the fortress as a potential problem…” Robin started.

The talk went on into the day, and tactical plans were discussed, and Robin provided several points for possible strategies. He offered several tactical strategies from different angles that gave them different types of advantages. Eventually they settled on a strategy.

It was the originally proposed strategy of attacking the reinforcement fortress at night, and taking it over. They would only be taking the shepherds, and of course a couple scouts. They ended up leaving the organization of the troops to Flavia and Basilio. They briefly considered taking the whole army, but concluded that Gangrel would have plenty of time to escape if they brought an entire army along. Instead the Khans would send the troops on their way back to Ylisstol.

“Alright, so two days?” Chrom asked.

“Two days should be plenty for the shepherds to prepare and mobilize,” Robin respond.

With that said, done, and organized, the war meeting was adjourned. Robin went back to his room to prepare. They would have a meeting closer to dinner, and maybe even at dinner to inform the shepherds.


	5. An End to The Beginning

The march to Gangrel’s villa was largely uneventful. The march was slow on account of many of the shepherds being on foot, but they got there eventually. As a matter of fact, they got there at a perfect time. Late afternoon. Chrom ordered the shepherds to take rest and make camp in the trees. No fires were to be lit, and tents were instructed to be camouflaged as well as possible. They had the evening to get rest before the combat began at the darkest hour of the night.

Robin made sure that they packed plenty of tents for everyone, and thus, he was able to have his tent to himself yet again. And his cot. How he missed the peace and freedom that came with sleeping by himself. Nowi had pouted about it, but she complied in the end. He had to give her a small lecture about the rumors that were beginning to spread about him, and her. He’d had to shut Vaike down a number of times, and Sully had started doing it too. 

Just the other night, he had caught Sully telling Olivia all about Nowi and him. It was full of the raunchy words Sully was known for, and he had walked into the conversation at the perfect time to see Olivia go redder than a cherry. That one took some explaining, and plenty of scolding.

It was best to not let his mind wander, especially not to such amatory thoughts. After all, he was attempting to rest before the battle in the coming night. After such thoughts were in his head it took some time before they managed to force themselves to escape his mind. Eventually, though, he was able to sleep.

 

Everyone was crouched into position. Virion was in place to begin hurling death at the night watchmen on the fortress wall. His shots were silent and deadly, and this was to be as quiet as possible. The mages, himself included, had prepared wind tomes. His normal book of spells did not harbor much wind magic. He would have to correct that in the future. They were keeping the mission as dark as possible. Therefore Nowi had chosen to not transform into her dragon form, as, being a divine dragon, her golden dragon form glowed.

She could perform some magic without the aid of her draconic form, though it was a far cry to what she capable of in full form. She could do simple and small spells, mostly coercive magic to manipulate the world. She could knock people of their feet and other such tricks. He would have to ask her and see if he could learn how to do some of them. 

Frederick, paired with Chrom were at the front of the group, Miriel was preparing a particularly powerful wind spell that would blow the gates wide open as needed. Robin gave the signal, one particularly for Virion, and he began to fire with deadly accuracy at the guards that were nearby to the gate. All of the guards standing near the gate, and on the walls were dead in seconds.

Miriel then used the opportunity to blast the gates open. What it really did was bend the bars of the gate to such a degree that they were able to walk right through without having to open the gates or anything similar. The only product of the spell that might alert attention was the whistling of the wind, but the plains around the area were windy so it didn’t stand out.

Quietly, everyone filed into the fortress, going down a short hallway in pairs, before falling in circumnavigating the inside along the walls. Once they were in the courtyard of the fort, Virion, and then Robin and Ricken dispatched the soldiers along the walls. The process after the courtyard was fairly simple. It was just a matter of moving through the inside of the fortress as fast as possible, all the while quietly removing anyone in the way.

Robin had planned it out so that Panne and Nowi got to work together it would be a good way for them to learn to get along. Defending someone while in mortal danger tended to instill trust pretty quickly. Robin hadn’t been able to partner with Chrom in a while, but he had to say that he missed it. The two could just read each other’s moves very well. It made combat much more fluid. Then again, saying that he hadn’t partner with Chrom in a while was a dumb statement. They had been at a full war pace, with massive scale battles, not team combat operations. 

Being able to take on foes in single combat was a great relief from the war, which had morphed into massive battles with lines of soldiers.

Completely clearing the fort, and then double and triple checking to make sure only took the shepherds a few hours. They wouldn’t be able to keep the surprise for long, so as soon as they had the fort secured, they took some time to rest and recover from any wounds. Robin planned for them to attack as the sun was rising. That gave them some time to catch some more sleep, especially after some intense combat. Firstly though, his curiosity could not contain itself. 

Robin went and found Nowi, who was sitting on a bench in the courtyard eating apples. Not an apple. She had a small pile of apples. Of course being courteous, she threw him an able as he approached, and he obliged, biting into the sweet fruit.

After he finished chewing he spoke, “So you know. I couldn’t stop thinking about the applications of Manakete magic,” she looked at him quizzically, “not your dragon fire, mind, but your other magics. The simple ones you can do while in human form.”

Nowi promptly laughed.

“Haah! I could maybe, maybe teach you some things, but you don’t look like a divine dragon to me. Most of the stuff I know is for divine dragons only. Its manipulation magic, for changing the world, given to us by Naga, the mother of all divine dragons. I don’t know if it would be very fun though,” Nowi said.

“What do you mean by maybe?” Robin asked.

“Well you see, to be able to do it at all you would have to have dragon blood, at least the faintest traces. You would be surprised by how many humans actually had some bit of the blood of dragons in them. Species interbreeding used to happen a lot. Chrom, for example, could probably do at least a little bit,” Nowi explained, “But it wouldn’t be fun, I’d rather play a game or something. Howabout counting the stars, we could look for constellations!” 

Robin sighed. 

“Well that’s too bad, I was looking forward to it. I didn’t think I would be able to learn it, and if I could, well it would not any time soon, or a very fast process,” he said.

Nowi hopped up from her spot on the bench, “Well… I suppose we could at least check to see how affinite you are with it, but I need something in exchange,” Nowi smiled at him.

Robin sighed, “What do you want?”

Nowi pointed up into the night sky, “What constellation do you think that is?” 

“Is that not Hector the Great?” Robin asked.

“You could call it that, but it also goes by a much older name in the eyes of the Manakete. We call that constellation Durban, who was the predecessor to Hector.” Nowi said. 

Then Nowi laid herself down on the ground and faced the sky. She rested her head on her hands like a pillow.

Robin just sighed and got down on the ground with her. He looked up at the stars and Nowi told him about the stars. He didn’t actually know very many of them, just of few that could be useful in navigation. It was hard to remember that they were just resting a few hours before going into combat again. In fact he did forget, for he had become lost in the starlight, and the Manakete who spoke of them.

Suddenly something, or someone was poking him with a stick.

“Hey get up. Kid, Bubbles it’s time to get a move on.”

Robin sat straight up, and smashed his forehead into the stick that had been poking him there. He rubbed the sore spot.

“Blue said that we were going to be moving out in about an hour,” Gaius said.

Robin sighed, “Yeah I hear you. I’m getting up,” he turned to Nowi and gently shook her, “Hey Nowi it’s time to get up. Don’t make me drag you around by your feet again.”

Nowi herself sat straight up and pulled her shirt down, though it was covering her completely. 

“Nope, nope I’m awake, don’t do that. I’m fine,” she was sporting a rather bright blush.

She was thinking of a few days ago, right before they had moved out, he had needed to drag her out of bed. It wasn’t a pretty sight, Robin grabbing her by the ankles to pull her of the mattress. Of course the worst possible thing happened and he nearly exposed her by dragging her shirt almost completely off of her.

“I don’t know what I’m missing, but you should get ready. We can’t have our great tactician unprepared cuz he was sleeping with the kid,” Gaius said, giving Robin a smirk.

All Robin could do was shrug, and think about how sore his back was from sleeping on the dirt. Not a feeling he was entirely unused to, but still unpleasant all the same, especially after a few weeks of rest at the khans’ abode.

Robin got up onto his feet and gave a big stretch, before actually stretching. He had to loosen his muscles up for the coming battle. A couple of hops to get his blood flowing and he was good.

“No one finds out about that you hear me?” Nowi said.

Robin looked over to her, as she was now standing, “Of course, I won’t tell anyone that I had to literally drag you out of bed,” Robin smiled.

“That’s not what I mean and you know it,” Nowi pouted, “Just remember that I am a dragon the next time you tease me like that,” she turned her head away from him, “I’m not stupid enough to think that you did it on purpose, but don’t make fun of me.”

Robin sighed, “I apologize.”

Nowi nodded, and began to walk off. Robin followed as they both were probably going to the same place. The fort’s mess hall. Someone was doubtlessly preparing something on the plundered foods. Even if nobody was cooking, which he was beginning to doubt on account of the smell of something burning, there would be plenty of fruits and other prepared foods like dried and cured meats. 

After a hardy breakfast, everyone gathered together to do a light morning warm-up. It constituted a light jog, and everyone split off to do a few drills, or spar against each other. Soon everyone was completely warmed up and ready for battle. Chrom called everyone to gather up.

Chrom cleared his throat, “Now everyone. Today is the final battle. It is a battle that will see peace returned to us, and Mad King Gangrel’s defeat. Today will not bring us some paltry victory, but something that will sustain Ylisse’s peace for many years to come. We all come from different backgrounds here in the shepherds, it is a wide cultural difference that gives us the great advantage of many different experiences. Now. Shepherds!” Chrom shouted, “nothing can stand in between the many ties that bind us together into one family. Who is with me today, as we see this through to the very end?”

“Yaaaaah!” it was the collective war cry of the shepherds.

“Form up shepherds let’s do this thing!” Robin gave the command.

They all gave one last cry as the lines were formed. It was a strategy that Robin had formed. They looked somewhat disorganized. He had put people in odd places, temporarily of course. They would quickly form into a combat machine, but for now they looked like a ragtag bunch of mercenaries.

To show it off, Miriel and Ricken were in the front, alongside Frederick. Beside them was Vaike. He had put Sully and Stahl in the back alongside Chrom. To put it easily they were put in very odd and random places. It looked like they had prepared for battle by choosing the spot in the form that they were going to be in.

Once ready to marched out to the field, they flooded through the gates of their captured fort, sure of their victory. Across the river their morale fell though, as in the field in front of them, they could see an army. King Gangrel’s private honor guard was standing ready.

Robin though quickly. He looked up and saw wyverns.

Shoot. The reports didn’t say that the honor guard had wyverns. That must have been how they knew we were coming, Robin thought.

“Form up shepherds! Cavaliers do the arrow thing. Chrom take the lead with Kellam. Mages, healers get into position. Tharja do that curse.”

Robin began to shout out rapid fire commands. The shepherds, used to his rapidly changing tactics, responded to his commands perfectly. 

Tharja cast her spell and its effect was immediately seen in the enemy formation. Gangrel’s honor guard immediately slowed down as they moved sluggishly, as if they had all instantly taken on their own body weight a second time. 

The arrow of the shepherd’s cavaliers crashed into the side of the lines, breaking through and slaying some of the mages and archers. Quickly they retreated from the crowd and charge back around to the shepherds’ line. Then the lines hit. 

Kellam, with Vaike and Chrom on either side of him crashed into the line of soldiers. The lines were broken and spread out, and it became somewhat of a game of cat and mouse, as the fights devolved quickly into one on one matches. This type of fighting had been Robins plan, as it was what the shepherds excelled at. Lon’Qu was far more of an efficient fighter, for example, in a duel like setting. He could dispatch his foes in seconds. The fighting force in front of them threw a paltry resistance to the shepherds’ advances.

The men they were facing were the most highly trained in all of Plegia. It was a true example of what morale did to an army. These soldiers in front of them, loyal as they were to the king, were shaken by Emmeryn. While a few of the soldiers outright surrendered, dropping their weapons and taking a knee as the shepherds passed by. They lowered their heads in preparation to be slain anyway. Those who surrendered were to be spared by Chrom’s order. 

As they neared Gangrel, his remaining loyal guardsmen managed to position themselves into some semblance of formation. Instantaneously the fighting grew much more grueling. Robin called for lines to form, and they began forcing the enemy soldiers backwards.

Far behind the Plegian soldiers, Robin could hear the Mad King Gangrel frothing his anger was so fierce. He began shouting orders and threats simultaneously. Anyone who surrendered would forfeit the lives of their families and be sent to work camps. This was part of the reason that the Mad King needed to be put down. It was for his inhumane acts against his subjects. 

Robin gave an order, and suddenly the order of the lines slipped and changed formation, until the shepherds and maneuvered behind the enemy lines. Then Gangrel was isolated from his troops by a wall of the shepherds. Chrom nodded to him and moved to face the king. A battle between the rulers of nations would be a powerful message, much more so than if the shepherds had surrounded and executed the Plegian ruler. 

Chrom pointed his sword at Gangrel, taking a dueling stance. From his scabbard, Gangrel drew a weapon that Robin was unfamiliar with. At least, he had never seen one before. He knew about them, but they were incredibly rare, precious even. One wouldn’t trade it for its weight in gold. That would be a scandalous price. Gangrel was wielding a Levin Sword. Very few of them yet existed, and one was in the possession of the Plegian royal family.

Gangrel began laughing, though what he said after is loud shriek was beyond Robin. He couldn’t tell if the man was too far away to hear clearly, or if he was truly speaking nonsense. Suddenly Chrom charged Gangrel, who stood there at the ready, for he needed not to move, considering the powerful magical spell that his weapon could conjure up. He would, of course, move out of the way of Chrom’s blade, but not before releasing a devastating attack of his own, that forced Chrom to predict and dodge.

Robin turned his attention back to the rest of the shepherds, who were fairing very well against the best and brightest in Plegia, in terms of combat ability. Many men lay on the ground dead, and just as many had taken to their knees to signify their resignation and surrender. Soon all that would be left was the shepherds, Robin surmised, until he was surprised, yet again that day, for the crowd of soldiers lined against each other suddenly stopped at the loud resounding crash of steel on steel, and Robin didn’t even have to look to know that Chrom had closed the gap between himself and Gangrel.

Both warriors, if one of them could be called such a thing, matched each other blow for blow. This sudden spectacle before them cause the Plegian royal guardsmen, and shepherds alike to forget themselves and observe. From were Robin was standing, he could see that Chrom was going to win. Gangrel already had a number of nicks and bumps, bleeding, battered, and bruised the mag king continued until the only sounds on the field were the clashing of blades, as the two leaders of nations fought it out. 

Suddenly Gangrel made a fatal mistake, and in a flash it was over. The Mad King was impaled on the exalted prince’s divine blade, even from his distance away, Robin could somehow hear those last words, as if they were designated for his ears only.

“I… shall die alone… as every man…lives and dies… alone,” his words were but a whisper in the wind. 

There were no great cheers for or of victory as the battle swiftly concluded. The mood had turned instantly somber and sour at the end of the Mad king. Chrom allowed for the king to fall to the ground lifeless before he carefully extricated Falchion from his chest. 

What Chrom did next was a surprise it everyone, though not an unpredictable occurrence to end of a battle between kings. Chrom took a knee to pay he respects for the man. The rest of the Plegian forces fell onto one or two knees and lowered their heads in reverence. 

Over the sound of the wind, the only sound to be heard, Robin could hear Frederick speak.

“Collect your dead, your dying, and your wounded. You will not be harmed, taken prisoner, nor questioned. We will extend to you time to give the fallen proper rites, but we will be temporarily laying claim to the Villa, for a night or at most two,” Frederick directed.

These were words that Chrom and Robin had instructed him to say, as he had probably the most commanding voice among the shepherds. It would require Chrom to get up, and ignore the respect he was attempting to give to the king. Robin himself, just wasn’t too much of an imposing figure, and he knew that. He could plan circles around almost anybody, but as far as being an imposing leader-like figure he was not the greatest choice. 

Slowly those of the Plegian side gathered together and began combing the field for their dead. It wasn’t a matter of sorting out the bodies, but rather of just taking the time to get to every single one of them. In that matter Robin had made it easy for them, being that none of the shepherds had died, or received serious injury.

Robin went about with Lissa, and assessed the various shepherds. While he couldn’t necessarily heal them of their injuries, it gave him a chance to speak with every member personally, and inquire as to their state of mind. He liked to know how they were all doing, and likewise this could be one of his last chances to speak with all of the shepherds again, as they were likely to split apart once all the post war festivities were ended.

 

Later that evening, Robin was approached by Chrom, with a rather serious matter. Not one of a dire nature, but still something to be cause for joy. Chrom approached him to ask a very important question.

“Robin, I have something to ask of you. I am going to wed Sumia later tonight, and I was wondering if you could be a witness? I’ve also asked Frederick, and Libra to be there, so do not worry,” Chrom said.

Robin grinned, his smile spreading from one ear to the other, “Of course Chrom, but I must say that you are a rather impatient man.”

In front of his eyes Chrom turned red, and laughed in order to hide his embarrassment. 

Chrom coughed, “I intend to hold the ceremony as the sun is setting, on the balcony overlooking the field,” Chrom pointed up. The balcony he was speaking of also overlooked the courtyard. Much like the rest of Gangrel’s villa, it was over grown with plant life, though it appeared to have once been beautiful as there were many flowers overflowing from it.

“I’ll see you then,” Robin said, before walking off to go find someone of his own.

He didn’t make too far though, at most maybe a few minutes, before, instead of him finding her, she found him. She found him in an interesting way. He was walking past one of the many overgrown bushed in the yard of the villa, when it happened, and all of a sudden he was blind, for someone had thrown his hood over his eyes. That said someone was an obvious person. He could tell who it was by their weight. 

Of course he would never tell her that, though it was unlikely for her to over react. Manakete had a much heavier bone mass than humans did, so while she was pretty small for a human, she was quite weighty, he was lucky that he managed to maintain his balance. While she wasn’t exactly twice the weight that he would expect from someone her size it still caught him off guard that she was more than what she looked.

“Nowi,” he shouted in shock.

“Aww, how’d you know it was me?” she said.

She still didn’t get off of him, though she allowed him to put his hood down. Instead of hoping off of him, she wrapped her legs all the way around him, and locked her fingers together, making sure to not choke him.

“Because,” Robin said.

“Because why?” Nowi pressed.

He sighed, “Why do you think? Who else in the shepherds would do this to me?” Robin answered.

Nowi rested her chin on his shoulder, he could feel her talking to him as she moved her jaw.

“Iduknow. Tharja? I bet she would. She likes to play these kinds of games,” Nowi said.

“Don’t get me started. It was hard enough getting her to stop stalking me, and I’m sure she still does anyway. That’s beside the point, she’s quite a bit bigger than you,” Robin sighed.

“Are you making fun of me Robby, because that’s not very nice,” Now said, and she jutted her chin into his shoulder ever so slightly harder.

“Not at all just the facts. She is taller than you, and her arms are longer. She also wears very… different clothing, than you, that alone would have let me know who was holding on to me,” Robin reasoned.

“I see, well how about we play a game then. Because my feelings are hurt,” Nowi said.

Robin sighed, “If you want, but I won’t be able to play for very long, I have something to do with Chrom in a bit. It’s kind of important.”

“Fine we can play a game of riddles then,” Nowi said, “that will be pretty quick. Alright I’ll go first,” Robin sighed as Nowi continued, “okay. Okay. I’ll go with an easy one first. What disappears the moment you say its name?”

Robin had to think for a moment, as he did not know this one.

“Okay. Is it silence?” he said.

“Bingo, right on the money!” Nowi said, still grabbing onto him from behind. He wasn’t supporting her, she was just grappled to him.

“My turn. Alright I’ll take your easy riddle and raise you one hard one,” Robin raised a finger in the air and took on a whimsical tone, “You saw me where I never was and where I could not be. And yet within that very place, my face you often see. What am I?” he questioned.

Contrary to his expectations though, Nowi was quick to respond.

“A reflection,” she said.

“Oh. Well darn, I thought that might have been a hard one,” He said.

“Yeah well because you were mean, I’m gonna be too. Are you ready? What do you throw out when you want to use it, but take in when you don't want to use it?” Nowi said.

“You really are a mean one aren’t you? You know what. Why are we even doing this?” Robin said.

“Because it’s fun,” she answered simply.

“It’s fun for you because you are good at them. Tell me then, because I don’t know that one.” Robin said.

Nowi answered, “an anchor! I’ll tell you what, since you didn’t get that one I’ll give you another one free of charge”

Robin sighed, “Sure Nowi.”

“Okay. Here goes. Of no use to one, yet absolute bliss to two. The small boy gets it for nothing. The young man has to lie or work for it. The old man has to buy it. It’s the baby’s right, the lover’s privilege, and the hypocrite’s mask. To the young girl, faith; to the married woman, hope; to the old maid, charity. What is it?” she said.

“What?” Robin said, “That’s hardly and easier one-“ he was interrupted though, by a soft warmth against his check, and then Nowi was off. He looked around him, but she was far too gone for him to attempt to catch up to her.

His face went bright red once he understood what she had done. Robin sighed. He noticed the time, and that it was nearly at sundown, and began to make his way to the balcony, all the while making an attempt to clear his head. He didn’t really know what to think, or what to do. Either way, he had something to get done, therefore he quickened his pace in order to make it there in time.


	6. Celebratories

As it turned out, Chrom’s “wedding” to Sumia went off without a hitch, though Robin didn’t know why they bothered having their wedding, because quickly after the shepherds had returned to Ylisstol- really, less than a month- they had their public wedding. Really Robin loathed having to be there. While he was happy to accompany his good friend on his wedding night, Robin almost disliked the nobles more. It really wasn’t all the pomp and snobbish foppery that he disliked about the nobles of Ylisstol, but rather their scheming poking into his business. It was all grappling for more power, and if they could gain a foothold against him, who was close to Chrom, then they could gain more grip in the courts.   
It was difficult to trust them and their subtle efforts at political control. He supposed attempting to worm their way into the mind of the tactician was something of a priority, especially one of his status, whom had simply appeared out of nowhere to lead the shepherds to victory. He was an unknown factor, and he could completely upset the balance of the nobility.  
Of course it wasn’t Chrom who had warned him to be on his guard, but his now wife, who had given him the warning as to the dangers of his new and heroic status. Sumia’s warning had ensured that he did not drink too heavily at the public party, lest he dole out information that need not have been spoken.  
There would be time for much more open merrymaking at the private party that had been in planning for the shepherds. Nonetheless he could barely wait to go and actually unwind. Happy was he was for the royal couple the nobility kept him on edge, as he expected that they always would if he stayed in such a vicinity to Chrom, and he suspected that he would. He figured that becoming completely inebriated was the best way to go about preparing for what lay ahead of him.  
Later in the evening, maybe one could even call it night, and Robin had shooed away the last petty official searching for his familial origin or some such, really the poor man was one of the last to leave after Chrom had given his dismissal speech, signifying the end of the festivities.   
The only ones left in the room at that point, and finally, as many of them thought, were the shepherds. Everyone turned silently towards Chrom expecting some kind of speech or word from him.   
Chrom coughed, “Okay. Well this is a good time I guess to bring the good news. You all are free to remain in Ylisstol and take up residence in the Shepherds’ barracks. It’s a job that is open for you all and it will definitely keep you busy as we fix up the military, and repair the countries. The military was never focused on the ‘smaller’ issues of the people any way such as brigandry, slavery, and such, which will be your duties, if you wish to take them up for-“  
“Hey Chrom,” Vaike interjected, “I don’t mean to interrupt except I do. This is supposed to be a party celebrating our victory and your wedding. Cool off.”  
Chrom coughed, and there were some quiet chuckles in the crowd of shepherds, “as I was saying, and yes Vaike we will get to that, the shepherds will not go disbanded and unemployed for some time yet. And one final thing,” this was the part Robin has been expecting, as he had already spoken to Chrom about it in private, “Robin, come on up here,” Robin did as Chrom asked.  
When he got up next to Chrom, the kingly man clapped him on the back, “This man,” Chrom started, “has seen us through many tough times, and I don’t think I would be remiss if I gave him the thanks he deserved. That is of course, that I am offering him an official position as chief of Ylisse. It’s about time that the old one retired anyway.”  
While Robin had expected Chrom to announce it to many people, the fact that he was, meant that Robin almost couldn’t refuse -though he had been somewhat on the fence about it- for fear making shame of himself and his now ruler.  
“Of course Chrom,” Robin smiled, “It would be an honor, but don’t tell me that you just don’t want to have to deal with the paperwork as we move forward.”  
Chrom cleared his throat, “of course not Robin… I couldn’t dump that all on you, you can have an assistant if you like. Heck, I bet Tharja would do it for free!”  
Everyone in the room was laughing now, as some of the scandals with Tharja had been public happenings during the campaign, short as the campaign was.  
Chrom spoke quickly, “that concludes the official business. Let the party begin!”  
Before Chrom had even finished speaking Vaike was already topless, and Sully was pouring a mug of ale over the top of his head. Cheers range out, and the chaos of a Shepherds party began. For the sake of saving on materials, Chrom had had sturdier tables put in place for the party, the mugs were made of metal, the tables were made of metal, the chairs were made of metal, and a small amount of wire fencing was being installed quickly over all of the windows.  
Soon the royal party room, as some called it, was no better than an unrefined bar, and gave way to the betting, drinking games, and yes, brawls, that were involved. Luckily for them, there were a number of skilled healers among the group, one of which who would stay sober and prevent any disasters from befalling.   
All said and done, many tables and chairs, while not completely shattered due to their material, were folded and bent at odd angles from the blunt force inflicted on them. Libra was definitely a busy man that night, fixing broken bones, and teeth, as well as a few bloody head wounds.  
There was a reason that the shepherds did not have their own private parties.   
The next couple of weeks went very slowly for Robin. There was, as he predicted, plenty of paperwork and organization to be had at the behest of his sanity. As the chief tactician that he was, he had plenty of underlings to assist with note running and such, but ultimately he was on his own as far as moving things around went.  
Chrom left him in charge of the relief efforts towards the Plegians as well as writing out sums of money to be distributed to the families of all fallen soldiers. The list was extensive and frankly it was something of a depressing reality for him. It made all of the deaths that had happened seem much heavier as he read out their family names, wrote a short a curt letter, and attached a note to be sent to the treasurer to enclose some small amount of money.  
This arduous and depressing work strengthened him in knowing that, while he would always work masterfully as a tactician on the field of battle, his job as a tactician entailed far more than simply ordering troops about, or planning troop movements. This was perhaps the second heaviest of tasks, and helped him to not make light of the soldiers he did his best to treat not as chess pieces, but as living and breathing men and women. Sadly, he knew there would be many, many more days similar, as he could only process so many names in a day, especially since he had taken to personally writing every letter, which Chrom had told him that he did not have to.  
Because of his work he didn’t leave his office much, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying, he left as often as he could without jeopardizing the finishing of his work in a timely manner, and he did want it done, so he could get into the kind of routine work he would be doing for years to come. He didn’t see the shepherds too often, but then again, not all of them had stuck around for long, and even then some were only staying until things calmed down. The original members were of course all there, they hung around the barracks in boredom when they weren’t out saving some village or small town from outlaws.  
It eventually became apparent to Robin, why Chrom and Sumia had married with such sudden haste after so many months of tension and military campaigning. Robin would occasionally see her in the long hallways of the castle or out about in the gardens, or even when she came to watch Chrom beat him into the dirt on the sparring grounds. After first he wasn’t so sure, and that perhaps the royal life was treating her well, as far as food was concerned, but given more time it became obvious.  
The official announcement came to the public and confirmed what Robin thought, but did not say, which was that Sumia was with child, and would, in time, give birth to the next heir to the throne.  
The queen’s pregnancy prompted in him a curiosity to learn of the customs of Ylissian succession, especially considering who the late exalt had been. In reading the text, Robin found that a shift in succession rules had changed after a brief civil war some 200 years prior which prompted the rise of the first female exalt.  
Really- history was something that fascinated him. And he moved on from Sumia’s romantic books, and pushed into something more of resemblance to textbooks one might find in the royal affiliate college. It was an odd shift at first but nonetheless fascinating for his mind. Chief among the texts that he read from was a book that seemed to grow of more importance to him by the day, which was his text on manaketies. Which, for some reason, continued to draw his interest. In the royal library Robin also found a similar text on the Taguel, which he took and read with similar gusto.  
He felt that perhaps, being able to understand the different species that existed in the world would allow him to be a much more effective leader in his position. In fact much of the texts that he read held similar back ended purposes. Robin felt a need to learn about the world around him that he had forgotten, and thus he studied everything from politics to geography and biology in his downtime.   
Really it was an unexciting life he was beginning to lead as a tactician in the castle. There was little to any activity, and he had been repeatedly tempted to join in on Frederick’s morning fitness hour. He always managed to stop himself just before he was about to leave his room and do it, reminding himself of the regret that he would feel, despite the temptation of getting his blood pumping. He still ran drills as a weekly practice in the training yard, so as to not become dull and weak of body and muscle.  
His dull life, if you could call his constant business dull, was quite fulfilling. After the initial shock of after war reparations, his work load eased off. As he became more comfortable with his newfound tasks he began to accompany Chrom to meetings of court, as well as the few hours every day when he had time to see and meet with the people as they came to him with their needs. Many of those hours were wasted on lords of the land and their petty squabbles over territory and other properties. Unfortunately for Chrom, these were the kind of people that Robin knew he disliked, yet neither of them could say that the nobles were particularly terrible at what jobs they had.  
Robin could easily say that he did not envy the daily toils of being the Exalt, especially for a man of Chrom’s stature and upbringing. Many advisors and learned men were brought to him in order to teach him matters of the court, such teachings which he had not been privy to in his younger years, beyond the most basic of things, of course.   
The exalt had not expected to be crowned ruler of his nation, and instead had spent much of his life learning the ways of war, as it was, he was a capable tactician on his own, yet still a much better leader. Robin could see he took to the life of the courts with as much effort as he could possibly muster, and used Robin as a punching bag to unwind when he could. Robin didn’t mind too much as it was a good time for him to spend time with his good friend.  
The time flew by, or it seemed to do so, and suddenly, one day at around noon Lissa near literally popped in his room, and verbally dragged him out into the halls before he could even ask why. When she gave him room to speak it was, of course, the first thing he said.  
“Why?” Robin said (of course).  
“Sumia’s giving birth sometime soon.”  
“And why do I need to be there?”  
“Because,” Lissa said, “there has to be witnesses. Haven’t you been studying? I know you have.”  
Robin just sighed and rubbed his forehead as he blushed.  
“Why does it have to be me?” he said.  
“Because. Chrom wants you there, and he trusts you. Plus you’ll get to see the queen nearly naked, what’s not to like?” Lissa said.  
Robin stopped in his tracks, “Okay first of all there’s all lot to not like there. Also, Lissa… seriously? She is the queen. Plenty of reason to not look at her, she’s the wife of a man that I respect, and also, she is your sister, technically.”  
“Just shut it and come on. You won’t be the only one there you know.”  
That was how Robin spent the rest of the day in a loud room with 20 other people, and a very unhappy queen.  
He couldn’t honestly say to himself that getting to witness the birth of new life into the world didn’t have some kind of magic to it, also Lissa had lied to him about the naked part- thankfully. Still it was a very hot an uncomfortable set of hours rife with tension and the muttering of some select nobles. Still it was something else, and as he had waited in that room he could help but let his mind wander and realize how much time had passed since he had first started his role as the royal tactician of Ylisse.  
How time seemed to fly by, and it really did fly it had been less than a year, yet it felt to him as if he had been doing it for a truly long time. Soon it would be spring in Ylisse, and as the country prepared for the spring festival, so too would they be celebrating the birth of the Exalt’s daughter. It was a rather twofold celebration. After the baby, Lucina, had been settled in, which really didn’t take too long, maybe a day or two, celebrations were prepared and the whole of Ylisstol would feast upon such a say. Robin, with Chrom’s help for once, wrote out letters to be send by the fastest couriers to furthest reaches of the continent in order to pull in any remaining shepherds.  
Even from his castle balcony he could see how hectic the city looked. It was overcrowded as people brought in family and friends to celebrate and participate in the parade. Robin believed the public parade would help solidify the people’s love for Chrom as the new exalt, even more so than the love his people already expressed for him reminiscent of their love for his late sister and his victory in the war.   
All of these events and preparations felt all too rushed for Robin, considering how slowly such big events tended build up to in the kingdom, but then again, he had never been witness to the celebrations of the birth of royalty. Robin’s temporary role as security manager for this big event was rather stressful, as over the next few days he had made a point of knocking as much crime out of the city as possible, as well as initiating a small clean-up and dress-up effort of the poorer areas of the city.  
Robin had visited the less well kept areas of Ylisstol, and hoped to someday change the image those places presented to the public, this was just a perfect excuse to do just that, and help show off to the arriving dignitaries from Plegia and Regna Ferox.   
Flavia and Basilio would be there, and, though no new king had been chosen quite yet for Plegia, a few of their more powerful nobles would be visiting as a show of good faith.  
Soon Robin had compiled a task force of local soldiers and even a few of the castle guardsmen to assist in the cleaning up of the city. Everyone in the city was taking up brooms to sweep of the cobblestone roads, and the dirt and mud roads of lower districts were cleaned and pathways of wooden boards were lain down over every muddy and dirt path except for the alley ways, which were left mostly as they were.  
The jails were brimming with new occupants as criminals were apprehended and imprisoned for a time or given a hasty fine for their misdeeds. The amount of unchecked crime being called forth was quite disturbing for Robin, and as he was discussing it with Miriel in the libraries one night she had given him an excellent idea, which he would put front to Chrom once the business had all died down.  
In preparation for his plan, Robin recruited Vaike to assist him in fixing up the town. It was a good way to groom the man for what he had planned, and after making sure Vaike was okay with it he decided on ensuring that his plan happened, because Ylisstol really needed an official force of soldiers to keep track of all the crime, rather than just making use of the word of mouth given by citizens, and then acting in slow response with city guardsmen. Vaike would lead this new group.  
Soon the city was as clean as it could reasonably get and the castle guest rooms were full of foreign dignitaries. Lissa assured him that future celebrations of this caliber would not be so formal in their attraction to guests. The first born was apparently, quite simply, a great cause for celebration.  
Soon the day for the celebratory parade was upon them all, and Robin was seated atop a royally bred steed not dissimilar from Chrom’s own horse. He was to the Exalts’s left, and to his right was Sumia mounted atop her pegasus. Behind them all was a following of Frederick’s handpicked knights all in nearly literal shining armor, so pristine was the polish of the metal. Behind them were the lines of nobles and visiting royals. Robin could even see Basilio and Flavia showing of with their chariots, which he didn’t even know that they had or used. At the back of the parade were the shepherds, who Chrom had outfitted all in impressive gear and armaments to show off the heroes of the last war, which no one had had time to celebrate beyond small celebrations after the end of war chaos.  
Ahead of them, Frederick himself carried the standard of the royal family, the massive flag embroidered with the mark of the Exalt in blue, gold, and white sat atop a sizeable pole to display it to all eyes.  
Robin shifted in the seat of his saddle, somewhat uncomfortable wearing the ceremonial regalia whilst atop a horse. Nonetheless it didn’t bother him so much as to prevent his good mood and cheer from showing.  
Ahead of them Frederick kicked his horse into slow motion, and the parade began. As soon the Ylissian people saw the standard of the royal family, the crowd erupted from a low rumble into deafening cheers that drowned out all other sound. The force of the crowd’s excitement couldn’t help but to bring out the best in Robin as he followed alongside Chrom, and waved to the people with the biggest smile he couldn’t help but to muster.


	7. Some Odd Situations

Robin woke up the day after the celebration to find that he was unable to sit up in his bed. He looked around blearily in order to find the reason why, and it took him a minute figure not what, but who, because “who” was under his blankets and lying on top of him was the question. Which was why he couldn’t find them. He knew who was there, or who was most likely there.   
Robin didn’t know any other manaketies.   
“Nowi we talked about this,” he groaned.  
She did not wake but stirred slightly in her sleep.   
Robin needed to figure out how she did this without him waking up.   
Carefully and gently as he could, Robin rolled the heavy little manakete off of him and got up, he put on some slippers and threw is coat over his halfway decent sleepwear. It would be good enough. Robin headed down to the dining hall to pick up some food, and if he managed to catch Chrom before the Exalt got into his daily duties he would be asking a few questions.  
Thankfully for Robin, the young Exalt and his wife were at table with their very young and normally loud daughter, who Sumia insisted on caring for herself as much as possible. Thankfully again Lucina was busy suckling at her mother to be loud. Robin tried to ignore what little of the queen that he could see.  
“Chrom I have questions for you,” he said gruffly, as he sat down next to the Exalt.  
Sumia chuckled, but otherwise said nothing.  
Chrom gave Robin the fakest smile the royal tactician had ever seen and said, “Why whatever do you mean… Robby?”  
At this point Robin knew that Chrom knew.  
“You let Nowi into my bedroom last night. May I ask why, you know we’ve been having an issue about this. It’s indecent.”  
Chrom snorted, “Indecent my royal ass, you basically all but lived with her for at least a month.”  
Sumia gave Chrom a light tap, “ Honey don’t use rude language around our daughter,” she jutted in, “she doesn’t need to be picking any of that language up at such a young age.”  
“O-of course dear, whatever you wish,” Chrom said.  
“Don’t avoid my questions Chrom. Why did you let her in?” Robin sighed.  
Chrom shrugged, “I didn’t let her in your room, I just gave her directions to your room, and she probably got one of your guards to give her the key.”  
Robin lifted and eyebrow, “So my guards, who are under orders to not let anyone in unless I’ve given them permission to enter, let her in. As I slept, a privilege that maybe two or three people have outside of the royal family. I assure you Nowi isn’t one of them.”  
Chrom shrugged again, “Who’s going to stop her? She’s a divine dragon. She is one of the highest and most revered creatures in the Nagan orthodoxy.”  
Robin always seemed to forget that about her, but he also hadn’t grown up on the teachings of Naga like nearly every good citizen of Ylisse.   
“Well damn, I always forget about that. I know she’s a manakete and all, but not all of them are from the divine bloodline,” Robin sighed.  
End of conversation.  
Of course his guards would be religiously powerless to stop a divine creature like Nowi- that is until they knew her better. He might have to give them specific instructions to not allow Nowi in. Then she might throw some kind of childlike fit, and they would end up letting her in anyway. It wasn’t like he could stop her from just flying up to his balcony and going through those doors, which didn’t have any locks on them.  
Ultimately he decided to try and get his guards to keep her out, all the good that it would do.  
It was at that moment, as Robin was silently eating and thinking up solutions to his new dilemma, that the object of his issue appeared in the doorway of the dining hall. She showed up wrapped in his blankets with her hair bent in every odd angle.  
“Good morning… Robb-Robb…,” She yawned, “Robin. What’s for breakfast?”  
Robin turned to her and crossed is arms, “You’re up early.”  
“Yeah,” she rubbed her eyes, “I fell off of the bed, or something, iduknow I woke up on the floor,” her voice was low and crackly.   
Nowi settled down in the seat next to him, fairly ignoring his glares. Quickly a servant came buy and placed a platter of food before the little manakete before giving curtsey and moving back to the edge of the room.  
Nowi placed her face, cheek first, on the table and looked up at Robin. There was mischievous pleading in her eyes.  
“Robin feed me, I can’t take my arms out of the blanket,” Nowi complained.   
“No” Robin sighed, “Do it yourself.”  
“I can’t it’s too hard when I’m sleepy,” she stated, giving him an impressive fake yawn.  
Chrom was quietly snickering behind him. Robin turned about and gave in a deadly warning that promised pain and paperwork. The Exalt didn’t stop.  
All that Robin could think was, Why Me?   
“Aaah,” she expressed, “This is where the food goes Robin, aaaaaaaaah,” her mouth was wide open.  
Robin stood up and began walking away, he had to go to his office anyway, and plan a way to get Chrom to be required to look over and sign a bunch of official paperwork. He also did have some work to do in light of the end of the celebration or at least the back end of the celebration. He wasn’t sure that the celebrations would stop for another day or three, at the very least the clean-up/security crew would have to be there to supervise, so he needed to make sure that the proper people were notified and given the proper permissions and paperwork to carry out their jobs.  
Honestly it felt like he wasn’t even doing the job of a tactician anymore, very little of his job involved the movement of the military or other defensive units such as the royal guard. He assisted in helping Frederick organize castle and outer wall patrols on occasion but that was about it, besides crunching numbers as far as the supplying of the military went until they could all be given official notices of the disbanding of the army. It was an incredibly slow process to make sure every soldier was relieved of duty properly, and it all had to go through him.  
Already in thought, he didn’t notice Nowi getting up to follow him, ignoring her breakfast. Until, that is, she said something  
“What are we doing today Robin,” she said, following behind him.  
Robin, shocked out of his complaintive thoughts turned to look at her.  
“When do you even get back to Ylisstol? I figured I would have seen you sooner. Also I’ll be going to my office to work I’ve got a few things to get done.”  
Nowi pushed her forehead into his arm, “That’s boring you need to do something fun for once, otherwise you’ll turn into some old smelly guy, like those weird nobles always visiting Chrom,” she exaggeratedly threw her head side to side, still swaddled in his thick blanket.  
Robin groaned, “What do you want to do, then? I’ll probably be done around, or a little after noon.”  
His work load for the next while wouldn’t be terribly difficult or time consuming, just intensely boring to work through.  
He observed that Nowi’s continence instantly brightened up. There was a solid glimmer in her eyes, changing from subtly obvious mischief to excitement. He quietly suspected she wanted him to know she was teasing him, yet he never voiced his thoughts openly.  
“Great, excellent, fabulous!” she exclaimed, “I was thinking we could look around town and try some stuff out before all the fun ends. You know this isn’t the kind of thing that happens all the time. I’ll see you later.”  
Nowi waddled off, still under his blanket for some odd reason. She didn’t give him any time to complain or compromise before she was gone down a corner, going in the opposite direction that his office was in. He just shook his head and moved off to go get his work done. It was easy to get her off his back, figuratively, and in the past, sometimes even literally.   
(In a dramatic voice) Later, in Robin’s office…  
Nearly half of the way through with his work and it was suddenly stopped short, and for once it wasn’t Nowi’s fault. Seated in a plush chair in front of him was the young daughter of Lord Ferris. A lord in charge of a moderate size of land near the south-eastern coast of Ylisse. Ferris had attempted to suit them together in the hopes that Robin would begin courting his daughter.  
Robin had to say that he definitely didn’t dislike the girl, though she was some years younger than him, he suspected, for he didn’t know his own actual age. This was perhaps their fifth meeting. The lord brought his daughter whenever he visited the capital to discuss matters with Chrom, typically those of a more economic origin. Their family was, for a time, known for their exportation of iron, yet in recent years the lord had also moved into assisting with providing trade of more perishable goods, namely fish.  
Perhaps in time he might consider the young lady, Jordane, suitable, but he had no intentions towards marriage for anyone as of yet in his life. Nonetheless she was both pleasant company, and knew he had no such intentions for her, merely she did as her father wished, which was respectable in its own way. Social duty was an odd thing, he had come to find.  
Chrom never told him when Lord Ferris was coming, though Robin had checked past records and found that the lord planned weeks in advance, and Chrom knew of Ferris’ intentions for his daughter, but had seen fit not to warn Robin initially.   
Spending time with her was pleasant enough, and somewhat of a refreshing taste compared to the usual visitors and attendants of the castle. Lady Jordane reminded him somewhat of Maribelle, had she no amount of incredible pomp.   
Their conversations waged every which way when she came to visit. Sometime he would talk about some simple tactics, and in turn she would talk about the simple intricacies of life in her court. It was a fair verbal exchange that gave him some level of satisfaction that spending time with similar persons would not give him, mainly her piously soft spoken nature- which was something that other nobles he was acquainted with lacked.  
As they sat and discussed the differences in tea (knowledge imparted on him by some other loud noble) a loud rapping came to his door. Whoever was knocking on his door was quite angry and Robin suspected he knew who it was that was visiting him at a still early time in the morning. In fact the only ever person who barged in in such a way was Frederick, as most other people would have his guards knock on the door.  
He heard a voice from outside, “my Lord Tactician Robin. Sir Frederick wishes to speak with you.”  
He was a Lord in name only, he had a title, and the technical privileges therein, yet he did not have the monetary prosperity and land like he normally would have had otherwise.  
Robin sighed, “Allow him in.”   
Jordane kept silent in front of him her eyes darting between the door and Robin himself. Robin shot her a small and short apologetic look as Frederick stepped into the room holding a small figure by the coat.  
This small green-yelllow haired, pointed eared, pouting individual, with her arms crossed as she dangled from Frederick’s hands, gave him the saddest look he had ever seen.  
“Nowi? Why?” Robin said, not even bothering to stand up and greet Frederick as the tall man irreverently held the manakete girl dangling a head’s length off the ground.  
“It’s not my fault. Frederick’s soldiers were playing a cool game and I was bored. It was a fun game where he split them up, and had them line up, and then they would smash their shields into one another. I figured it was some kind of game for concentration because they looked all serious and stuff, I was just trying to make them laugh so they would lose,” Nowi said.  
Frederick dropped her and she landed smoothly on her feet, “I’ll let you deal with her Robin. Her safety was endangered there, as well as the safety of my guardsmen. Chrom told me you were in charge of her.”  
Robin felt as if that was a lie. He knew that Frederick didn’t like him very much on principle. The stoic knight had never really liked him, and the man’s odd devotion to his charge kept a wedge in between them either way.  
Before Robin could so much as blink again, Frederick was out his door and probably back to running drills with his men.   
Jordane tapped his foot with her own, so subtly that he doubted Nowi saw, “Lord Robin, would you mind introducing me to this young… Lady?”  
“Of course, my lady,” Robin said, giving her a nod, “This is Nowi, as you can see she looks rather young, but she is a manakete. It is the curse- or gift- whichever way you see it- of their kind to appear youthful for a much longer time than other races. I believe Nowi here is something over 1000 years old? Is that right?”  
Nowi still rumpled up from Frederick’s treatment nodded, “yeah 1000… 300 something?” she said, “at least a thousand.”  
Lady Jordane silenced a quiet gasp with her hand, “Oh my. You must be quiet experienced with the world then my lady.”  
Jordane stood from her seat and turned to give Nowi a formal curtsey. Robin succeeded in not laughing, but then again, most people would take a manakete and show them great reverence; perhaps even worship them. Robin might have shown a greater respect for the divine dragon if she was anyone else but Nowi.  
Jordane looked back to Robin and said perhaps the most improper thing he had ever heard her say, “My Lord Robin, do you perhaps know lady Nowi in any significance?”  
Quite frankly Jordane’s question threw him completely off. Nowi looked at him with confusion, and Robin snorted hard enough for his throat to hurt.  
“Gods no Jordane,” he said, “We were just friends and fellow shepherds in the war, nothing more really.”  
Robin caught a sudden, quiet hitch in Nowi’s breath at his response to Jordane, though he couldn’t think as to why. He didn’t think Jordane heard it, though, as she did not react.  
Luckily, at that time, someone came knocking at the door to save him from the awkward situation. The person who the guards announced was none other than Cordelia, coming to escort Jordane back to her father. It was really a short meeting that they had. Lord Ferris could sometimes take many hours to speak with Chrom, and Chrom was rather partial to the lord and thus gave up more than the usual time for him on most occasions.  
Jordane gave Robin a swift curtsey, and as she passed by Nowi she stopped and did the same, before stopping and taking Cordelia’s hand.  
“Sister,” she said, with reverence. The two were out the door and then Robin was sealed again in his office with Nowi.  
“Lord Ferris’ meeting didn’t take long. Well I suppose you can wait in here if you want while I finish up these papers, it won’t take more than another half-hour or so,” Robin said, as he sat back at his desk; patting the seat previously occupied by Jordane as to invite Nowi to sit down.  
Nowi shook her head, “No thanks,” she crossed her arms,” I’ve got something to do, maybe we can go out tomorrow or s-some other time if you aren’t too busy.”  
Robin put down his pen, as he had habitually picked it up, “That’s a shame Nowi I was kind of looking forward to it,” he stood up from his chair, “you wouldn’t mind if I helped you out for bit would you? If it isn’t too personal of a task.”  
Nowi looked away from Robin, “No it’s fine you should get your work done, it’s not so hard and I won’t need any help.”   
Nowi went and knocked on the door, signaling for the guards to open the door and let her out of the room.  
Robin turned back to his work in order to finish it. He rested his face in his left hand and gripped his pen in his right, intent on getting his work done. His grip was tight enough that third knuckled of his third finger had bent slightly painfully concave.  
He began writing again, “Damn it Nowi…” he muttered.


	8. Jealousy, What Is It?

Robin was just so dumb to be talking to some noble’s dumb daughter. What was he doing with her in the first place?  
Nowi knew it was customary for nobles to offer their daughters to other nobles as a bid for power, money, or control. Especially in Ylisse. This was why someone courting Robin confused her. She knew that he had been titled for his deeds, but he didn’t really have an incredibly favorable position in the politics and economy of Ylisse as far as she understood.  
Plainly she didn’t understand what it was she was feeling right then, when she was in the room- feelings she tried to hide, and the after effects of those feelings as she huddled against the wall and wandered about the castle away from Robin’s office and room. It was an ugly and angry feeling she wasn’t used to having, and couldn’t remember ever experiencing.   
It made her, the mature 1000 year old divine dragon, simultaneously want to go somewhere to cry, but also to seek violent confrontation.  
I just want to go and show the snooty noble bitch that she can’t have him.  
As she was walking down the wide, gray, and airy hallways someone tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around, nearly about the release her so suddenly pent up emotions on the first thing behind her.  
Luckily for Lissa, Nowi had enough self-control over herself to keep from harming the young princess.  
“Oh hi Lissa… What’s up?” Nowi said.  
“Oh… not too much I just so you and thought you could use a good talking to you know? How’s it going?”  
Nowi started walking again, with Lissa following along.  
“It’s going all okidoki you know,” she rubbed the side of her arm, “ Rob-Robby won’t play with me and Frederick was mean and carried me around by my coat,” Nowi showed Lissa her somewhat ripped coat hood.  
Lissa pouted, “Well I’ll have words with him, and get him to replace it for you. That was mean of him,” Lissa smiled, “Say, do want to go and have some tea with me it’ll be a fun little tea party and I’ll get a few more girls to come along. It’ll be fun.”  
“uh,” Nowi hesitated, “No I-“ clack!  
Her teeth clacked shut as Lissa suddenly pulled her down a side passage way and began pulling her o the direction of the royal apartments. Nowi could feel that she had bitten her cheek. But it didn’t feel like she was bleeding or anything.  
The sudden shock of surprise from Lissa’s antics gave way again to the oddly subdued sad-angry feeling from earlier. It was a feeling that wouldn’t go away, and she was beginning to suspect she knew the word for her feelings, but she was too proud regarding her feelings to admit it or acknowledge its definition. Almost shamefully so.  
It wasn’t long before Nowi found out that Lissa had in fact already gotten a couple of girls together, which alluded to why she hadn’t taken no for an answer. Soon Nowi was plopped confusedly down upon a pillow of yellow frills, surrounded by a room covered in soft yellows and frilly pinks.   
Around a large and low table sat many of the ladies of the shepherds including Cordelia, Sumia, Maribelle, and- surprisingly- Sully.  
Sully saw her look and winced, “Sumia made me,” she stated simply.  
The red-headed tom-boy even sported a simple dress, not as ornate as the others around the table, but still far from her usual dress.   
The whole of the room seemed to freeze unexpectedly when Nowi realised that Jordane, the lady from Robin’s room, was among the ladies seated at the table. She gave Nowi an innocent look, but Nowi could smell the intentions beneath those beautiful innocent eyes. She look away.  
A young maid, Lissa’s personal attendant, Nowi thought, served up small cups of tea to all of the seated ladies.  
As soon as the maid excused herself to the back of the room, Lissa immediately started the conversation, pointing her words directly at Lady Jordane.  
“Lady Jordane,” Lissa began, “how are things on your visit this time around, it has certainly been a month or two since your father has come by. He used to come by far less often.”  
“Yes he certainly has,” her soft spoken platitudes burnt Nowi’s nose, yet she said nothing, “the new exportation trade our city began has certainly grown our local economy a lot, and surprisingly so, considering what we used to solely focus on exporting.”   
“So I’ve seen,” Maribelle hopped in, “it seems to be doing a lot for your commerce, and as a function it has boosted the market supply of fish all over Ylisse. Why even in Themis we are experiencing an influx of cuisine from the sea, and we are on the other side of the country.”  
“Yes, our,” she glanced at Cordelia next to her, “father has gone to great lengths to ensure that our new exports are preserved well so that they can last the longer trips around Ylisse, Regna Ferox, and even Plegia,” Jordane continued.  
“Yes, Oh my! Dearest Cordelia I seem to have had a slip of the mind there, you and Lady Jordane are half-sisters are you not?” Maribelle exclaimed.  
Cordelia took a sip of her steaming tea before answering, “Yes we are.”   
Nowi had thought that she had heard Jordane correctly early, but her supposed words were now confirmed truth. She almost scowled at knowing she was related to the respected Pegasus Knight.   
Sumia, who had been silent thus far, finally spoke, “How are things with Robin?”  
The gentle clack of glass could be heard as Jordane set her cup back onto the table, “I do so enjoy spending time with him, even as we discuss simple things. He is a very charming man.”  
Cordelia spoke up again, “Yes I know what you mean. It is a wonder that he hasn’t attracted more attention to himself, with his sudden and heroic appearance, I dare say I expected all the ladies to be swooning over his lap.”  
“Yes…” Jordane murmured, “It’s quite something isn’t it.”  
“Indeed,” Maribelle spoke absently.  
The chat of the ladies went on for some time, and Nowi’s frustration grew greater, until it made its way to a shield of cool indifference. It was a mask she had known to wear for some time as she absently spoke about this and that with the other noble and titled ladies among the group, doing her best to avoid direct conversation with Jordane, lest her carefully controlled mask shatter.  
1000 years was hardly enough to master her powerful emotions, and she knew others who had difficulty at much greater ages than her own. Most manakete’s were solemn to show their faces to the other members of humanity until they were, at the very least, her age; however, she had been much less fortunate. It was best not to dwell on the past.  
It was best for her to simply keep an eye on things, and hope beyond hope that nothing got out of hand. She couldn’t interfere in such matters as it stood. Nowi spent a chunk of the afternoon sitting and talking with her ladies, everyone was giggling whenever Sully said something complete inappropriate, and Lissa maid had, on more than one occasion, gone completely scarlet in the face from the red-head’s words, which made everyone in the room continue to laugh.  
Eventually the small party of people left to attend their evening tasks, and Jordane, who had announced that she would be staying for an undetermined amount of time around the castle until her father next visited, went to her room. Nowi was the last to leave, thanks to some pointed looks from Lissa. They were looks she would have rather avoided, but could not in the public space.  
With a small look and a shooing motion, Lissa maid left them and closed the door, leaving Nowi alone and vulnerable in the room with Lissa.  
“Okay, now that everyone is gone can you just spit it up and be yourself? I know how manaketies are. I’ve been reading Robins book when he hasn’t been looking,” Lissa said pointedly.  
“What?” Nowi said.  
“Robins… you know book? The one about manaketies? I thought you gave that to him.”   
“No I don’t know what you’re talking about…”  
A book on manaketies? How did anyone have the knowledge of her species to compile a full text? That was a little weird, but she had noticed a number of books ranging from various topics like politics, and oddly enough biology, sitting on his desk. Perhaps it was just among is odd retinue of reading. She thought.  
“Yeah. He’s had it for a while now I think he got it at some antique book shop in Plegia, I’m not quite sure when…” Lissa said.  
“Never mind that. Can I just go? I’d rather not talk about it. If you’ve been reading a book that has any accuracy you’d know that I’m kinda emotional right now, I don’t want to lose control and hurt you,” Nowi said.  
Lissa waved her off, “Oh be quiet you, I can handle myself just fine, and besides I trust you to not hurt me.”  
Nowi sighed, “its just- I- that I- Robin he uh, is frustrating me right now. I Think?”  
“Oh come on what’s a little bit of girl troubles gonna do to stop you? We all know you’re trying. Even Chrom has kind of figured it out probably.”  
Nowi hugged her ribs, “Yeah I kind of figured that, but it isn’t just some simple little game I can play in my free time. Especially not now, I shouldn’t even be allowed to think about him right now.”  
Lissa looked confused, “Why not,” she said.  
“It’s just that- look I can’t okay, I figured you would know if you had been reading that book you revere so much,” Nowi said, bitterly.  
“Well it doesn’t matter,” Lissa said, “I really don’t know. Why can’t you just tell me?”  
Nowi bit her lip in frustration, “Fuck!” she cursed, “Lissa. I told you. I can’t doing anything about it. At least not right now.”  
Lissa had jumped at her sudden violently vocal burst.  
“D-does it have something to do with Jordane?” Lissa questioned, carefully.  
Nowi was slowly pacing the room now. She was trying to control her breathing, lest she let herself from her control.  
“It has literally everything to do with that b-bitch,” Nowi was trying to hold back her rage and feelings of loss, “  
It was a stupidly horrid feeling, and something her elders had told her about a long time ago. It was the covetousness that came with living close to humans, coupled with the magically binding laws of her people. One seldom spoken and rarely enforced.  
“Nowi? Calm down before things really get out of hand. Deep breaths now come on,” Lissa said.  
She drew closer, attempting to put an arm around Nowi and steady.  
“No,” she pushed the young princess, too wise for her years, away.  
Nowi began to look or an exit as fast as possible and settled on the doors to the balcony. Ignoring Lissa’s pleading she escaped the room and jump from the balcony. She took the gifted form of her ancestry mid-air and took off away from Ylisstol.


	9. Recoveries

Some days passed without Robin being able to see Nowi. It seemed to him that she had disappeared off of the face of the earth. He wondered if she was upset enough, though he knew not what from, to simply leave again after having just returned. He had expected to be dealing with her for some time before she set off to wherever again. He never did find out where she had been since the end of the war.  
Either way, he was too busy to go and see if anyone nearby had seen her, at least at the moment. It frustrated him somewhat. The day before, a courier came in with reports that the forests to the east of the city were burning. In fact, he had noticed a slight ashy gray tinge to the color of the clouds in that direction.  
At this point Robin was convinced that Chrom was dumping at least a portion of his own workload onto Robin, as handling this situation should have been a decree that he made, yet it was pushed on to Robin. He was sure that his military status as a tactician was totally worthless. It was official.   
Now he was in the business of gathering the rare Fimbulvetr tomes from the castle’s stores and the College’s libraries. He would have to lead a small troop of mages and soldiers to attempt to dispatch the fire, or at least slow it down so that any villages in its way would be able to escape being consumed. No reports of lives lost had yet to appear, but it had only been a few days.   
As a matter of fact, evacuating nearby villages was but a precaution, considering that the nearest village or town was quite far from the fire, but it had the potential to spread far enough to effect more than just wildlife. He wasn’t willing to risk people in the situation, and his mages would be equipped and ready to mobilize by late afternoon. They would make headway towards the offending forest but would not reach there until sometime around noon the next day. Their first destination was a short investigation as to the origin of the fire.  
The courier would guide them to the most likely location of the fire’s origin.  
Robin was in the process of writing letters of request to relieve some more advanced mages from their studies temporarily. He was going to be taking a few students along, not just the more experienced and learned sages. In his letters he specifically asked for Ricken, whom he knew had been at the college. Having a shepherd along would boost the other students’ confidence, and his own surety that they could stop the fire. He was likewise aware that the other students look up to Ricken, and considering the nobility of many of them, they might be more inclined to follow Robin with him around.  
He trusted the young and prodigious mage’s abilities. Perhaps more than the older more experienced ones in employ of the castle.  
The process was finished with quick and practiced ease. He was getting better at writing letters and signing documents. He rolled the thick parchment and encapsulated it in a wooden carrying case with the seal of the royal tactician imprinted on it.  
If he was being honest with himself, the mage in him yearned to try out the Fimbulvetr tome, and he would have to take some short practice with it along the way to the fire to ensure its proper use. He knew it wouldn’t be simple like using thunder magic was to him. The icy magic was more akin to wind magic, of which he was slightly less practiced with, still proficient mind.  
With every task complete, Robin began gathering his personal habits about himself and sent a messenger off to the college. His cloak’s pockets were laden with the weight of several tomes and texts that he kept on him at all times, though at that point the spot for his wind tome was replaced by the Fimbulvetr tome.  
Robin, mounted on his horse, followed by the knights and mages he had procured, were nearing the charcoaled remains at the edge of the forest. Even as far away as they were, the acrid burning smell of the forest touched his nostrils, and tinged his eyes.  
Behind him he heard someone cough.  
Soon their horses were treading on the blackened remains of the wild. This was where Robin stopped. He dismounted his horse, and motioned for everyone to do the same. One of the knights dismounted, but the rest spread out into a patrol formation as Robin had instructed them to do. The dismounted man stood guard while the mages went about their business. Robin and the other mages quickly spread out to search for some clue, but it didn’t take more than a few steps before Robin and most of the other mages he brought along could tell what had happened.  
There was a powerful sense of magic in the air, it almost crackled through the ground, not physically of course but it was there. One of his mages came up.  
“Lord Robin sir. It seems that the fire was magical in origin,” she had said.  
“So it seems,” he placed a hand on his hip, “perhaps a brigand of some fair magical strength. Uncommon of course, but they may have simply lost control of their power,” Robin said.  
It was more than a meager speculation, and was as good an idea as any when it came down to it. The mage had probably been practicing or showing off, and had lost their grip on the fire magic. Fire tomes could also simply explode if not treated well, but that would require an especially stupid mage.  
“Robin!” came a shout from deeper into the ashen wastes. It was Ricken.  
Robin shooed the mages back to their work and stepped off towards Ricken, who was squatted some distance away. How he managed to get so low in his robes, Robin would never know. Perhaps long practice from years of wearing such clothing.  
Once he was near he saw what Ricken was looking at and saw that the boy was blushing heavily, and realized, not what, but whom. He was crouched over a girl, naked, and covered in so much soot that he difficulty telling her apart from ground for a moment. She was still breathing, which was a relief.  
He knelt down, and gently rolled the girl onto her side in order to inspect her a little more closely for burns. Her backside was slightly less ashen colored from the soot, and what he saw there shocked him. He saw Ricken gasp beside him. All over her back was one massive scar. In a familiar shape. Robin removed his glove to make sure that he was seeing the correct thing, and indeed the shape of the massive scars matched what was on his hand.  
Robin replaced his glove and let his eyes wander to the girls head, were he had enough self-control to not exclaim anything as he saw her ears for the first time. She had the long and serrated ears of a manakete he knew well.   
He looked around at the fire damage, and back at Nowi sleeping on the ground naked. Quickly he removed his coat and wrapped the heavy girl in it as he picked her up. Gods she was a deep sleeper, but he knew that.  
Now that she was covered and no longer indecent in his arms, he turned to Ricken, suddenly very glad it was the boy who had found her. From the recognition in Ricken’s eyes Robin knew that the boy knew who the manakete was.  
“No one knows about this alright Ricken?” Robin said, grumpily.  
Ricken nodded in understanding, “Yes Robin.”  
Nowi could very well be tried for this. Divine Dragon or not, there were plenty of nobles who cared about their land more than what gods they worshiped. Robin doubted Chrom would allow anything to befall the manakete, yet it was still something he preferred to avoid.  
Nowi was the perfect excuse, and a likely candidate for the cause of the fire. If Nowi had caused the fire, than she would likely be sleeping from exhaustion. Something he had read spoke of how manakete would sometimes require a violent outlet for their pent up instinctual energy, and it left them physically drained, but overall healthier after.   
It was just unfortunate that she had found something combustible to destroy rather than something like a boulder. He shuttered to think about what it might been like to witness such a destructive event. He didn’t want to know what an out-of-control manakete could do, or what the destruction would look like. The only thing capable of stopping such a catastrophic event would be Chrom’s falchion, or perhaps a more powerful member of her tribe. He didn’t know where Nowi stood in terms of sheer power though.  
Manaketies were perhaps a more rare sight than the Taguel, and Robin knew that there was only one member of that species left. That was to say, he wasn’t likely to meet any other of the dragon kind. Ever.  
Still holding the girl in his arms, Robin commanded the search to a halt. She seemed somehow smaller and more vulnerable to him now more than ever.  
“We should probably move on to subdue the fire. It is the most prominent thing, and we are unlikely to find a mage outside of ourselves nearby. If some inexperienced mage had started this fire, well, he’s either dead or fled long ago. Same for anyone else who might have started this fire. Best not to dawdle,” he commanded.  
Robin had even thrown his hood over Nowi, so as to hide her head, and ears. For now her colorful hair was disguised all on its own.   
Robin somehow managed to carefully mount his horse and seat the sleeping girl in front of him. One arm held her in place and he used the other to hold the reins. The other nearby knights and mages did well to not question the small bundle he cared for, though he heard some muttering among them to the effect of “Lord Robin” and “young girls.” He paid them no mind.  
He knew that they knew he had collected the comatose girl in the ashes, and probably suspected that she had been abandoned to die there by whomever had started the fire.  
Nowi didn’t wake up from her draconic slumber until they were all but an hour from Ylisstol. The fire was but history, and come autumn, saplings would be sprouting among the ashes of their fallen parents. Honestly his arms were tired form holding the manakete up for so long.   
Even as she lifted her head up to look about weakly, trying to get a bearing on where she was, he continued to support her, lest she lose her balance and fall from the horse. He could feel all the buttons and facets of his coat she wore as he held her tightly to his chest.  
She looked oddly mismatched with her clothing. He had managed to procure some spare trousers from one of the female knights, who was closest to her size out of everyone in the party, but nobody had any shirts to spare, so she was still wearing his coat to defend her decency. And likely it kept her warm, because it had been a little chilly, not that she needed the extra warmth, being warm blooded as she was.  
Nowi spoke, “You can let me go Robin… I can hold myself up.”   
She sounded tired.  
It wasn’t the kind of tired brought on from a single sleepless night, but the dreary exhaustion that came with exerting one’s self to the absolute limit. He knew the feeling, and had known it only once after their defeat at the Plegian castle. It was a strangely numb feeling of being too tired to even sleep because that took too much energy. One could do nothing but simply keep going.  
“I don’t think I will. You just woke up and you’re all exhausted. I’m surprised you are even awake yet,” Robin said, frowning.  
Nowi blew a raspberry, “Robby I’m fine. I’m a manakete remember, we’re pretty strong you know.”  
Robin let go of the reins for a moment to rub the side of his head.  
“You’re going to hurt yourself and I don’t need that responsibility,” Robin said.  
“Hey…” she complained, “I bet you a thouwsand gold I can hop off this horse and beat you to Ylisstol. But if I’m gonna get that money you’re gonna have to let me get off the horse.”  
“Yeah fine. Sure. We’ll see,” Robin said.  
He, gently as he could, let slack from his grip until he had all but removed his arm from around her waist. Immediately as all the slack was let off, he felt her slump forward and sideways. He almost reacted too slowly to keep her from keeling over.  
“woo, hehehe,” Nowi giggled, “that was close. I think you should hold me for a bit longer.”  
Even as she said that, Robin could feel her stiffen up noticeably and shiver. She let out a small pained cough. It concerned him greatly, yet she didn’t seem sick, or injured.  
“Are you feeling alright Nowi?” he asked.  
“I’m fine,” she rasped, “could you not squeeze me so hard though? I can’t breathe.”  
Immediately Robin loosened his hold on her a little bit.  
“I apologize,” Robin said.  
“It isn’t a big deal,” she said, before coughing hard into the shoulder of his coat.  
Robin chose not to speak again, sensing that she didn’t wish to speak anymore. He granted her the kindness of keeping quiet. She obviously wasn’t telling him something, and probably wouldn’t. The way she had been acting since getting back from wherever bothered him enough that he wished for the days when she wouldn’t leave him alone.  
He knew that he hadn’t gripped her that hard.  
Nowi was thankful that Robin stopped trying to talk with her. It was just making it harder all over again. She could feel the accursed magic shock through her every time she attempting to console with him. It wasn’t enough for her tribe to simply have laws, but the laws were enforced through the binding magic of manaketies.   
Just being close enough to touch Robin right then was causing it to react. She could smell the concern melting off of him, but she did her best to ignore the distraction. She hoped he would forgive her for staining the shoulder of his coat. It was hard to tell, but she was certain he would eventually notice the subtly darker, and ruddier patch of color on the shoulder of the coat.  
She hoped that they would get the Ylisstol sooner, and prayed for the hastening of the horses. She doubted Robin would let her away from him until they were, at least, within the castle where a healer such as Lissa and/or Libra, whom he trusted, could look her over.   
She would just have to bear it for now, and keep away while she could, as well as that would work. She would curse her ancestors if they weren’t so powerful, and alive. She would curse her petty emotions too if they weren’t all she had to continue feeling something.  
Blissfully she could feel sleep overriding her current fear, and let it take her back to its depths again. Should could thank her primal, destructive instinct for exhausting her so, and perhaps when she was in the next life she would do so.  
***  
She was brought back to consciousness again as Robin was handing her limp body over to Libra, so he could inspect her and her health. Once she was awake enough to focus with her eyes she saw Robin walk away. This simultaneously brought her relief and twisted her stomach up into knots. She was beginning to learn what it was to covet something that wasn’t shiny. The feeling was evil.  
She let him walk away, knowing full well what was probably going to happen over the next few days.  
“Good morning Libra,” she said, sleepily looking up at the soft man’s face, “I haven’t seen you since the parade.”  
“hmm,” he hummed.  
Libra had her sit in a warm bath for a long time after he had checked to make sure she didn’t have any immediately threatening injuries. It was wonderful to get some quiet time for a moment to sit and sigh into the water while she slowly and methodically scrubbed as much of the soot from her body.  
By the mother, it had gotten everywhere. She would be picking pieces out of unsavory places for weeks. Her ears and hair were the worst, and those were the things she wanted looking their best. The ash had gotten inside her ears and half clogged them. She didn’t even bother trying to do her hair alone and instead called Libra for assistance.  
He bade her wait while he went and got someone to assist. While she waited for the maid, Nowi set about picking her nails clear. Thankfully Libra, or some other servant, had left an actual tool designed for cleaning under nails. It was a little metal pick, with a small and fine brush at the other end.  
She had done all the work she could for her left hand when the doors to the private bathroom opened again. Nowi sniffed and stiffened slightly and she looked over to see Lissa. The young princess came in somewhat nervously.  
“How are you feeling Nowi?” Lissa said, whispering as if speaking any louder would scare Nowi away.  
“I’m tired Lissa, and too weak to keep my arms up to scrub my hair.” Nowi said.  
Lissa sighed, “I see… well let me get this dress off. It’s a bit expensive. Libra only told me you needed help.”  
Lissa quickly stripped down to her puffy undershirt and pants. Then, she pulled a stool up to the tub. While she was situating herself, Nowi did her best to get all of her hair to where Lissa could reach it. Honestly if she didn’t like her hair it would be much easier to cut most of it off. Lissa had a task ahead of her. A maid came in and drained the tub, pouring almost too hot water over Nowi’s body.  
Nowi sunk lower into the steaming water as Lissa massaged her scalp and scrubbed her hair. Lissa giggled above her.  
“Nowi, if you were a cat you’d be purring right now.” Lissa said.  
Nowi was indeed about to fall asleep as Lissa cleaned her dirty hair for her. Thus she attempted to occupy herself by getting the rest of the dirt from under her finger and toenails. Anything really to keep from falling asleep again. She always woke up in weird places. People’s arms, atop horses, atop Robin….  
The bath needed to be drained and refilled several times in order to get all of the sooty gray ash out of her hair, and then another full and clean bath to finish. As Nowi stood up, still shaky, to help Lissa rinse her off. She felt a flash of anger that she needed help to wash herself. It hadn’t been this bad very many times. And those other times, she hadn’t anyone around her who would have helped.  
She always went deep into the wilderness to release her more murderous urges, and often lay weak and comatose all alone. A curse of her long life, shared by all dragon kind. She chose spots specifically so nobody could find her.   
Once she stood at her full height, facing away from Lissa, she heard a halted gasp from Princess. Shame and embarrassment ran through Nowi in a hot flash, as she remembered that she was naked and that her back was not something pretty to look at. The backs of her arms were not something pretty to look at. They were perhaps more ugly.  
A long line ran all the way down to her wrist. Along that line was what made her arms perhaps the ugliest. A cruelly done and crudely depicted image of wings, carved to the individual feather, covered the back of her arms. She shuttered remembering, that perhaps the most painful part was when the man had carved the final feather, cutting against her wrist bone.   
“Let’s get you rinsed off, and dried. I brought along a new flavor of oil I’d like to put in your hair. Its honey scented! If you like it I can give it to you,” Lissa said.  
Nowi, being on her guard, got pushed off balance. She wasn’t expecting that from the princess.  
She turned to the princess, “N-no Lissa I’m fine. I don’t need anything like that,” Nowi panicked.  
Lissa smiled, and said “Nonsense, it’s good for your hair and smells nice to boot you know? Come on sit over here we can dry you off, and get to work. You have a lot of hair for your size. You have a lot of hair for any size.”  
Nowi reluctantly, and shakily, moved over to the stool Lissa had set up. She took Lissa’s hand and braced against it to sit down.  
She felt very exposed siting naked on the stool while Lissa looked her over. Lissa began to run her hands through Nowi’s hair, ensuring no tangles would occur, before gently working her hair through a towel. Once her hair was only slightly damp, Lissa pulled the towel away, and Nowi turned to watch her.  
Lissa noticed and made a little circle motion, urging her to turn back around. Nowi did as she was told, and heard the soft swishy sound as Lissa rubbed her oily hands together.  
“You know you don’t have to do this right?” Nowi said.  
“Oh whatever. Those petty social rules can stuff it. There’s nobody here to judge me,” Nowi heard from behind her.  
Lissa began to meticulously working the oil into her hair, starting at the head and slowly working down.  
Nowi took a deep breath, “Do you think it’s your fault?” she asked, suddenly.  
Lissa stopped, near the middle of her shoulder blades and jerked slightly. Nowi could feel Lissa’s fingers poke into her back. She tried not to flinch away slightly, but failed. It made her shutter.  
“What?” Lissa continued working on the hair, “What would make you think that? What’s my f-fault?”  
“You’ve never done this,” Nowi gestured to herself, “before.   
Lissa stopped to put more of the honey oil on her hands.  
“Well it’s just. I was reading in the manakete book and one of the sections talked about the emotions that all manakete feel. They’re much harder to keep in check, and stronger than if a human was trying to hide a feeling or something. I figured I wasn’t helping too much…” Lissa said, going back to running the oil through her hair, much more slowly.  
Do I really have to give a history lesson right now? Nowi thought.  
“It’s not something that was in your or my control. Do you know why manaketies exist?” she questioned.  
“No I don’t actually. I don’t know anything about the origin of the manaketies,” Lissa said.  
“Alright,” Nowi started, “well a long time ago. Way before I was born even. Dragons ruled the world, before even humans were around at all. But for some reason, and nobody managed to figure out why, producing offspring suddenly became challenging. Along with this, older dragons, mostly, began to grow literally unreasonable. The process is known as degeneration, and it can still happen even today to a manakete. Anyway, many of the dragons decided the best course of action to save the race was to put all of our power into stones,” suddenly Nowi stopped.  
Where’s my Dragonstone? She thought.  
A panic rose in her sudden and powerful. But Lissa quickly stopped her, before she stood up and potentially fell and injured herself on the slippery still wet floor.  
“It’s okay, Nowi I have it,” Lissa comforted, gently gripping her wrist.  
Nowi turned instantly on Lissa, “Where is it? I need it now,” she said, ferocious.   
Lissa recoiled, “I-it isn’t in the bathroom. I left it in my room. Robin gave it to me.”  
Nowi stood immediately and made for the door, “I’m going to go get it.”  
She barely registered the wet slapping of her feet stomping on the floor.  
“What?” Lissa said.  
Nowi stopped herself just before the door.  
This is stupid what am I doing?   
Still naked, Nowi stood still, with her hand on the handle of the door. She had almost walked out into the hallways, showing off everything for all to see. Nowi turned back around and moved to go sit down in the stool again.  
It’s okay. It’s fine. Nowi took a deep breath, it’s going to be okay. Lissa has it. It’s safe.  
Nowi situated herself on the seat again.  
“Its fine I can get it later. Let’s continue. Where was I?” Nowi said.  
She interlaced her fingers together to form a large fist and set her hand in-between her thighs. She straightened her posture.  
“Are you okay Nowi? Do I need to go get it for you? Clothes haven’t arrived yet,” Lissa said.  
“It’s Fine,” Nowi insisted, “let’s see, yes, degeneration. Stones. The Dragons sealed the majority of their power into individual gemstones crafted to hold the essence of a dragon. With the sealing of our powers came a human-like form, with sub-human physical abilities. Really. I wouldn’t be able to beat even a 12 year old child in a foot race- probably. Anyway, the loss of our permanent dragon form allowed us to avoid the madness, but it was not without its side effects. One of them being occasionally temporary loss of self-control, as far as our destructive urges go. Some manaketies can hold it off for hundreds of years with careful discipline.  
For me, that was the first time in around 30 or 50 years. Don’t really keep track of it,” Nowi shrugged, taking a few deep breaths, “You just happened to be in the wrong time, at the wrong time, I’d felt my grip slipping for a few days. The tea party wasn’t the only thing or the most prominent that led to my loss of control that day. It just happened to be the last thing. I was on the way to leave and go find someplace to hide it out when you caught me.”  
Lissa, having been silent for the time, spoke again.  
“Oh I didn’t know that about you, and I doubt the book would tell me. It doesn’t have a ton of manakete history…” she trailed off.  
Nowi could tell that she wasn’t quite convinced, and the Dragonstone did nothing to sway Lissa, and perhaps only made her fear Nowi even more.  
“You know the oil really does smell nice, I think I might like to keep it,” Nowi said suddenly.  
Just as suddenly, Lissa brightened up.  
“Of course, of course. You know how oils work don’t you?” Lissa said excitedly.  
Nowi smiled, “you might have do me for the first couple times. Bring a mirror along so I can see you do it.  
“Sure!” Lissa said, “hold on I’m going to go and see if your clothes are ready yet. I don’t have all day long to just sit here and chat with you. I have to chat with other people too.”  
She rushed off towards the door, turned mid-step, as if remembering something and dunked her hands in the cooling bath water to scrub them clean. Nowi chuckled at her but otherwise said nothing as the young princess rushed off, seemingly haven forgotten the time.


	10. The Missing Dragonstone Conspiracy

Robin unloaded the still, and yet again, unconscious Nowi into the pious Nagan priest’s arms. Libra accepted Nowi from him wordlessly and held her gently in his arms. As Robin turned around to go about his reports, he saw her eye’s flicker open, but chose not to say anything or bother her. She had seemed to not desire his presence anyway.  
Robin quickly hurried back to his study to compile a report for Chrom. The Exalt would not be in a huge hurry to receive such a type of report but it would be much better for Robin if he could go and get it done with thoughts on haste.  
On his way to his study he passed by the dining hall with intents on grabbing a few pieces of food to carry back with him. As he was grabbing a platter with some slices of meat, a potato and even an apple, he saw Lissa leaving the dining hall.  
Seeing her sparked his memory to a certain item that he happened to be carrying in his pocket. It was a large gemstone, smaller than his fist, but quite a bit larger than a pebble. He had nearly forgotten that he had picked it up for Nowi.  
He opened his coat, shrugging to himself as he noticed the ashy gray stains. He pulled the Dragonstone out of one of the hidden pockets inside his pockets.  
It can be cleaned later.  
“Hey Lissa, can you come here for a moment,” he caught her just down the hallway outside of the dining hall.  
Lissa turned to him, “yeah sure Robin, when did you get back?” she asked.  
“Just now,” he held out the precious stone, “Can you give this to Nowi when you see her again?”  
“Nowi’s back?” Lissa said.  
The way she said it brought Robin’s attention. It almost felt like guilt, but he suppressed his urge to ask her.  
“Yeah when I was out stopping the fire I ran into her,” Robin said.  
Lissa took the stone, “Yes well when I next see her I’ll give her it.”  
Robin was already walking off, “Thanks Liss I appreciate it,” he said  
Alright, that’s one thing taken care of.  
Robin walked back to the study, eating the sliced, he assumed beef, as he walked. By the time he got back to the room, he had already started on the potato, eating it whole as he held the hot food in his hand.  
“Lord Robin,” his guards saluted.  
They opened the doors and allowed him into his room. So intent on reaching his desk, with a mouthful of potato, he didn’t notice the presence of another person in his office. He sat at the desk and began the opening words of his report.  
Suddenly, “Welcome back Robin. Your powers of observation are clear to be seen.”  
Robin jumped from his desk, toppling the chair over in the process, making a clattering noise. Then, with one hand on the dagger he kept at his desk, he turned quickly to see Jordane sitting in a chair near the corner of the room.  
Nearly as quickly as he pulled his dagger around, the guards opened the doors and rushed inward, ready to halt an assault. Robin quickly waved them off, and they put away their swords and left the room again without another word.  
Robin picked his chair back up, and reset it at his desk.  
Jordane chuckled quietly, “Well it is nice to see you again Lord Robin,” she said, as she stood and curtsied.   
Robin returned the gesture with a bow of his own, “Likewise to you Lady Jordane Ferris.”  
Jordane walked over to him, “I do not believe, Lord Robin, that I know of your surname,” she said.  
As she walked passed him he could feel her hand brush against his, her fingers trailing along.  
“Yes, well Lady Jordane if you’ll excuse me, I don’t know my surname. I might even say that I don’t even have one.”  
Jordane gasped, “Why Robin. I didn’t know… are you perhaps orphaned?”  
Robin laughed, “I don’t know. Maybe. I woke up maybe two years ago in the middle of a field, with nothing but a name, a coat, and some knowledge. No memories. Chrom rescued me from what was going to be an almost certain and confused death at the hands of brigands. Really I owe him pretty much everything. Including my life.”   
“I see…” Jordane almost whispered, “But, well you are here now, and very much in need of some kind of notoriety. Have you considered taking a name?” she said.  
“What do you mean,” Robin asked.   
He was suspicious as to what she had meant by that statement.  
“Well it’s just that you cannot remain as you are now, Lord Robin,” she said, “You are a noble now. Maybe not a man of noble birthright, but titled all the same. It doesn’t matter what you were before.”  
Robin crossed his arms, “That’s something I can agree with, at the least. Who I was before is dead. All that matters now is who I am. Not even what I am is important, and it shouldn’t be.” He insinuated.  
“But still,” Jordane insisted, “You are a noble, and nobles have a responsibility to produce an able heir to their station.”  
Robin growled, trying to maintain careful control, “This is a matter we discussed, and it is a matter which is closed. And has been for some time.”  
“But Robin, I’m not sure you understand fully. At least let me speak my peace,” she begged.  
“That’s enough Jordane. Your peace has been said,” Robin said.  
The quiet and meek noble girl he thought he had known was all but a myth before him as she lost her grip.  
“Robin you say to wait bu-“   
Robin cut her off, “Enough Lady Jordane.”  
She continued to speak. Robin walked away from her and sat back down in his desk chair.  
“Lord Robin, you’ve told me to be patient and wait, that you are not ready for marriage yet, but this is my last chance,” he was trying to ignore her now, hoping she would stop, “whence my father returns again he will take me back to be wed by another. I don’t have any more time,” she said.  
Robin put his face in his hand, his elbow rested atop his desk.  
“I just. Can’t. I don’t know right now. I’m confused, and unsure of what I desire,” he said.  
“So there is something in your heart for me?” she questioned, accusatory, “It’s that little wench of a dragon that-“She stopped in her tracks, and let out a soft gasp, “I’m sorry I didn’t.”  
He didn’t let her finish that statement.  
Robin slammed his fist onto the desk, a small crack appeared, running vertically up one of the legs of the table.  
“Guards!” he shouted.  
His men burst into the room, weapons drawn, surprised at his sudden shout.  
“My Lord Robin?” one of them said.  
Robin took a deep breath, “Please escort Lady Jordane back to her suite. It’s about the time of day when she meets with the princess, and she seems to have had a little too much wine. She could use some time to calm herself beforehand.”  
“Yes my Lord,” the men saluted, “Come along Lady Jordane. Take my arm now.”  
Jordane bowed her head in defeat, and interlocked her elbow properly with the guard.  
She stopped for a moment and looked back at him, and said, “Good day Lord Robin,” before turning and allowing his men to guide her away.  
He said nothing back, in turn choosing to turn back to his desk and pick up his quill as his door was closed. He had a fire report to write.  
Robin bowed before Chrom. He made a show of it. There were many nobles in the court that day. All of them wanted to know about the fire. His written report was being passed around, but he was likewise expected to speak of what he found, and should he need, vocally fix any errors in this report.  
Chrom spoke, “Rise, tactician,” Robin stood from his kneeled position, “Speak.”  
“My lord. As the report mentions, five days ago I left Ylisstol, leading eleven mages armed with Fimbulvetr, and fifteen Ylissean Knights to ensure the safety of the mages. Around noon on the second day, we reached the location assumed to be the fire’s origin. There the mages and I agreed that the fire’s origin was indeed a magical one. It was agreed upon that the most likely culprit for the start of this fire was a rogue mage, or even a powerful outlaw magician.”  
“And you, the tactician, saw fit to not lead your small militant force in pursuit of one mage?” a noble said.  
Robin bowed low, “Duke Themis. There are two reasons I deemed it inappropriate to pursue the offender, perhaps even three. The first was that while the offender may yet be at large, I made the decision that stopping the fire was of upmost importance. Beside this point there were no tracks leading anywhere away from the burnt forest, I could assume, because of this that either the offender died with the fire, meaning there is no worry, or it might mean that a force including wyverns, or pegasi is involved. Which brings me to my third point, a force powerful enough to attract such skill as flying combatants is likely more than large enough to handle the small force I had,” Robin breathed, content with his speech.  
The Duke of Themis merely grunted, choosing to say no more.   
Chrom spoke again, “Anyone who desires questions, speak now.”  
There was a low grumbling in the massive circle of nobles around the court. It appeared as if they were quietly discussing the matter. Robin was patient as the nobles quietly discussed up and down the rows. Eventually, it was somehow unanimously agreed upon that they were done discussing things, and an elderly man stood up.  
“The court has nothing more to say on this matter your grace,” he said.  
Chrom stood from his throne, followed by every other member of court. Robin yet again knelt down in front of Chrom.  
“Very well then,” Chrom began, “I decree this matter dismissed. Rise Lord Tactician Robin, you are free to leave.”  
Robin stood again, and bowed low, before removing himself from the spacious chamber. Some random noble that Robin had yet to be acquainted with passed him by for his own turn at the courts. The man lifted his nose to Robin, perhaps not knowing who he was.  
Being the royal tactician afforded him rank above most people in the kingdom, barring the few dukes and the royal family. In war, Chrom was the only person who could outright veto his word. He didn’t much care for the habits of nobles or the status of rank, yet he attempted to at least be educated in propriety. That was a truly boorish man, arrogant enough to wear a cloak inside the castle.  
Behind him, just as the doors closed, Robin heard something he hadn’t heard in a long time. It was the blood curdling scream of a woman. The guards immediately threw the great, gold embellished doors open again and Robin rushed passed them into the giant chamber.  
In the middle of the room, Chrom himself was locking blades with the noble that Robin had not recognized. Across the room, Frederick was rushing forwards, but was slowed by his armor. On the other side of the room, from the entrance, Robin sprinted forward, drawing his blade, as did the guards following behind him.  
The would-be-assassin saw what was coming for him, and reacted in a way that none of them in the room could have expected. He dropped his guard, and Robin saw in his hand a yellow tome, signifying electricity. Chrom managed to slash the assassin before he cast his spell.   
The room was illuminated in a blinding hot light, followed by the deafening crack of thunder. A massive gaping whole opened in the ceiling. Frederick tackled Chrom away from the gigantic stone blocks as they fell. Likewise, Robin and the guards dove away from the center of the room shielding their heads and necks. A small fist sized piece of stone struck his shoulder for a glancing blow, and he knew that it would bruise horribly. The debris cracked down onto the floor, creating massive cracks in the stone floor.  
Robin heard the whinny of a horse, and knew that the failed assassin was escaping through the whole he had made in the roof. Quickly as he could, Robin regained his footing on the now uneven ground and immediately commanded the guards.  
“Bring word to Taxia Cordelia to mobilize the Pegasus knights,” he commanded, before halting, “scratch that, scramble the guard into high alert, I’ll do it myself. No one gets in or out without special notice. Check with Sir Frederick. Somebody else go and find Princess Lissa. Escort her to her room. I want two men on her balcony garden, and three men outside her door.”  
The castle guards barely had time to salute him before he was sprinting to the Pegasus roost, which was built onto a massive stone platform connected to the castle. It was at least four flights of stairs into the sky. The platform had a thick layer of dirt to facilitate for softer landings. Really it was a great display of Ylissean power. No other similar structure existed in the world.  
The amazing architecture did nothing for him then, as he sprinted up the stairs 3 at a time, flying passed the royal embroidery along the walls. He landed at the top of the stairs, completely breathless, but continued running towards the Pegasus knights’ barracks, which was likewise up on the platform. Somebody some him coming, and soon Cordelia was jogging out to meet him.  
“What is it Robin,” she asked, stopping in front of him.  
Robin gulped air, “Assassin. He failed. Escaped… by Pegasus, mobilize the knights. It looked like he was headed to the northwest, but he may have doubled back or picked a new direction. Check all the likely spots. Nobody got a good look at him, except maybe Chrom. He was cloaked. The Pegasus had a small brown patch of fur under the left wing I think,” Robin stopped to breathe for a moment, “The man was about my height, but slimmer by some small margin.”  
Cordelia whistled, and waved her hand. Someone came running immediately. The knight stopped and saluted them both.  
“Ma’am. My Lord,” she said.  
“Get everyone in the air. We have a traitor of the crown to catch. Robin’s height. Slimmer build. Brown spot under the left wing of the Pegasus. Northwest. Send them in all directions just in case. Everyone should carry their royal seal, they won’t be able to get back to the castle otherwise,” directed.  
Soon the grounds were crowded with pegasi and their knights doing last minute checks on saddles and wings. Cordelia, mounted on her own flying steed, stood at the head of the quickly forming flight formation to chase directly after the assassin. Other knights in smaller groups would go in all directions and search thoroughly.  
There was nothing more he could do here. He couldn’t fly a Pegasus very well, and he knew that riding double with any of the knights would only hinder them. Robin rubbed his temples. This was going to be a long day, and a long night, and a long week, until they found the culprit, or all signs were lost.  
Robin headed back down the staircase. Much slower, yet still at a steady pace beyond leisure. He still had some work to do with Frederick about security. First though, before that, he would report to Chrom.  
He found the Exalt sitting on his throne in the court room with Libra. Several attendants ran about. Robin noticed a local architect inspecting the damage. As Robin drew nearer, he could see that Libra was concentrating on magically stitching together a cut across Chrom’s arm. There would be no scarring.  
Robin stopped in front of Chrom, and grunted.  
“I got Cordelia to mobilize the Knights. They’re in pursuit as we speak,” Robin said.  
Chrom sighed, “Good. That’ll appease the court.”  
Robin nodded in understanding, “I suppose that the knights won’t catch him. They’re too young and inexperienced,” Robin glanced around the Court room, “I see Frederick has gotten to work.”  
“Yes,” Chrom agreed, “It’s a wonder that he isn’t right next to me right now. Frederick is going around and assessing all of the larger rooms for their viability and dependability. This part of the castle isn’t the safest right now, and won’t be for some time. The estimates are running that it is going to take at least a few weeks for them to get measurements in and get the stone cut for the rebuilding. Then they have to do the actual fixing of the room. It might not be done for a few months.”  
Suddenly Chrom started laughing, it was a throaty laugh from the man he hadn’t heard in a while. It was the kind of laugh one might produce in the face of an ironic situation.  
“What is it Chrom?” Robin said.  
“I was just thinking something, Robin,” Chrom leaned against his uninjured arm, “That was the best and most exciting thing to happen to me since I’ve been crowned. And I could have died.” Chrom snorted out a laugh again.  
“Yes I suppose that did add a bit of excitement to your day,” Robin said, dryly, “I suppose I’ll be saddled with the paperwork again too. Hmm.” Robin put his hand to his chin.  
“Don’t worry. I’ll find somebody else to do it. It involves moving a lot of money around, so perhaps I can load it onto the treasurer.”  
Robin just smiled and let Chrom do his plotting. He liked to joke about, but Robin knew that Chrom would end up doing a lot of the work, and a lot of the stress, no matter what he said.   
“Have fun with that Chrom, I’m going to go to my room and rest for a bit. Maybe I’ll take a nap until morning. It’s been a long day. Let me know what goes down in the morning.” Robin began walking away.  
There was literally nothing else he could do to help the castle in its current situation. He was a tactician, as much as he wanted to be a politician at times. There would be interrogations, but he wouldn’t see light of them. Frederick could organize the guard on his own, and Robin knew the knight let him assist out of some form of pity. His job, reacting, had been done. The Pegasus knights would take some days in an attempt to track down the culprit, or return at all.  
In the meantime there was nothing he could do save busying himself with worry over ifs and hows. Most of the work he did was technically not his job, and Robin knew Chrom dumped extra work on him to keep him from boredom. Ylisse’s standing army was virtually nonexistent, and what few troops they kept around were paid well and lived in middle district of Ylisstol.  
Robin could relate to them as career soldiers. When not at war, their only job was to keep themselves sharp and ready. Robin’s job was similar. He was to study tactics, invent new tactics, and do some light paperwork and documentation on the side.  
As Robin made his way back to his suite, he took note of how often new patrols of the castle guard passed by. Robin quickly realized that Frederick had pentupled the number of rounds that the guards made. He counted no less than fifteen patrols from the court to his door. By morning he was certain they would calm down. The guards couldn’t keep up such a workload for too long.  
His room’s guards were not present, and he assumed Frederick had taken them for patrols.   
Across the room, and through the door to his office, Robin found a concise letter from Frederick noting the occurrence of his missing guards, and too take it to the knight himself if he had complaints. The note prompted Robin to do a mental shrug.  
The only reason he had guards was because Chrom insisted. Likely it was just a tradition for the Royal Tactician to have guards. He was an important man after all, and he probably had many enemies. There was no secret to his location. As an Ylissean tradition of social rules and law, anyone who had done the necessary paperwork, noble or not, could meet with him or even Chrom.  
Not having guards was not much of a bother. People in the castle knew not to bother him without emergency. At one point the maids stopped coming in at night to clean his chamber pot out, which was useless anyway. Chrom had had a type of sewage system implemented in the royal suites, and there were no longer any uses for such things. For Robin at least.   
The maids didn’t even come in the morning to prepare him a fresh set of clothing, and though it had been offered to him, they were not allowed to dress him either.  
Robin sighed. His reminiscing was getting him nowhere. Those were simple things. Being alone, and not busy was getting him nowhere. So much had happened in a single day.   
He had spent the morning carrying Nowi on horseback and then through the castle to the healers quarters, and he would never stop complaining about how heavy she was. Then his fight with Jordane, which even now, several hours later, brought his blood to boil thinking about.  
Thinking about her now didn’t bring any of the wistful thinking as it had before. He had genuinely cared for her. He didn’t know if he had cared for her in such a way as to marry her, but he did know that her panicked words made him angry. Nowi didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.   
Even now he was growing more angry thinking about it and he didn’t know why. Wishing to calm himself Robin walked out to his balcony and looked out over the ledge at were the Ylissean hills met the darkening sky. The beautiful view did nothing to dampen his high emotions.  
He stood there, leaning against the fencing of his balcony, and stewing in his thoughts. He couldn’t help it, and without anything to distract him, he wasn’t sure if he could stop his circular emotional reason. It was just an echo chamber for his anger and other emotions he didn’t like, or wasn’t sure about.   
As he stood watching the night end of the sunset, the entire side of the castle cast in one long shadow, he tasted the salt of his anger, and reveled in it. He allowed it to flow until he was physically drained. Then he went to bed.

Nowi walked alongside Lissa through the castle. She was up and about so soon through no small amount of will power. She was grateful for the dress she currently wore, which did much to hide her shaky steps and wobbly legs, still weak, and now that her bath was over and she had cooled down, they were quite sore. It felt like she had overexerted every muscle in her body, and she knew that she had.  
Nowi looked through a passing window as she followed Lissa back to her room to retrieve her Dragonstone. She was dressed in light and flowy dress that was, thankfully, incredibly modest. Nowi didn’t wear dresses often. But then again, a year ago she didn’t wear a whole lot all. Not much covered to retain her decency.   
She had gotten used to such modesty, and was thankful that it was no longer terribly uncomfortable to wear, as she would likely not be going back to her old form of dress until she was alone and traveling again.  
“You lied to me Lissa. It’s fairly late in the day,” she said, judging by the longer shadows.  
“Oops,” Lissa said, “ Silly ol’ me. I seem to have lost track of time. I was so busy with you that I missed afternoon tea with a young visiting noble. How shameful.” Lissa rose the back of her hand to her forehead in a dramatic fashion.  
Nowi chuckled.  
Lissa didn’t want to tell her who, but Nowi all but knew for certain who Lissa had been talking about. She did her best to ignore an anxious feeling she had in her stomach.   
That was when a guard rushed up to them.  
“Princess Lissa. My Lady. It is Lord Robin’s orders for you to be escorted to your room,” Then the guard turned to her, “I apologize Miss Nowi, but only Princess Lissa will be permitted in her room at this time.”   
The guard bowed to her, and as she escorted Lissa away, Lissa waved.  
Nowi smiled and waved back, as soon as Lissa had rounded the corner, Nowi let out a breath that she hadn’t know she was holding in. Immediately she had to take in a few deep breathes to calm herself.  
In, it’s okay Nowi. She still has it. Out, the Dragonstone isn’t going anywhere. It’ll be there when you get to it. In, you’re in control. You are calm. Out, you don’t need it right now. You are going to live, she assured herself.  
Hoping the anxiety wasn’t obvious on her face, Nowi slowly made her way down to the dining hall, hoping for some place to sit for a while. She didn’t actually have any lodgings prepared for herself. The first night she’d been back she slept on Robin. After that, she had slept in a burning forest, and then on Robin’s horse, and in then Robin’s arms...   
It made her chest ache to think about it so she decided to think about something else. Anything else. Something distracting.   
What about opposite thoughts? Nowi though, I don’t like that noble girl, yeah that’s the opposite of Robin- oops. No, bad. Not now.  
“Hey, Dragon Girl. Over this way.”  
Speak of the Devil incarnate.   
Nowi searched for the voice, quickly locating it down a small servant’s passage. The voice sent small shivers of not quite describable emotions down her spine.  
Nowi walked over to the passage, “Yes my lady?” Nowi pursed her lips together, trying to avoid a scowl.  
“I don’t need any silly pleasantries or honorifics from you, you damn dragon. I have something you want.”  
“What?” Nowi said, genuinely confused.  
The young woman in front of her nonchalantly examined her fine, and well cared for fingernails for a moment before responding again.  
“I have a certain little rock in my possession. Something I’m sure you would want.”  
Nowi nearly assaulted her then and there, and she wanted to avoid being provoked at all costs. She wouldn’t be able to overpower the noble lady anyway.  
“Give it to me. It’s mine, and you know it. It has no use to you,” Nowi growled.  
The woman in front of her chuckled softly, “That’s where you’re wrong dear stupid girl. I can turn that stone to dust if I wanted. If you want it back you’ll have to do as I say to the letter.”  
Nowi genuinely scowled at the woman, “What do you want.”  
“Foolish girl. It isn’t about what I want, now is it? It’s all about you. It was you all along. And you’ll get it. I’ve prepared a special place for us, where we will be all alone and have all the time in the world. Meet me in the royal court at sundown tomorrow. I assure you nobody will be there to disturb us….”


End file.
